In the News

[charlie7]

Iv'e been watching the news this morning,i'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but the government are telling the police that they have to delete criminal records dating back over a hundred years,are there any other places that hold these records so that ancestry seekers can get to them, if not a lot of people will lose information they find valuable to them,personally i haven't found anyone in my tree with a criminal record but if i did i would want to know more

[Mutley]

It is only four police forces and the records of the four living people concerned are for very minor offences. Each force is appealing against the ruling.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7072241.stm

It will be interesting to watch the developments, at least our dead ancestors cannot sue for breach of the data protection act.;)

[Peter Goodey]

Genealogists obtain information on criminal convictions from the records of the courts, not the police.

[charlie7]

this is just how much things get taken out of proportion, what the media tv stated was so much more than what it really is, you just never know what to believe either through tv news or newspapers do you?

[Mutley]

In this hobby you learn to take everything with a pinch of salt.

In the olden days - They either, really did not know, were liars, were illiterate, were living in the land of make believe, had a sense of humour or were just plain daft.

In modern times - No change there then!!!! :D:D:D

[Gerda]

can any one please tell me where I can get details of a crime committed around the 1870's,tried the archives but had ni success,they advised the prison it self but I don't have the email address.Help Gerda[Aust]

[Mutley]

Gerda,
There are several places you can look, it depends on the crime, the situation and where it happened. It is not much use me giving you a reference in London if the crime was in Scotland.

Can you give us more details, it is often a difficult thing to do, embarrassing for you when it is your family but we all have skeletons and no one really minds we are only interested in helping out.

[Gerda]

Mutley Thanks for assistance, don't mind the skeletons at all in fact makes things a bit more interesting.All i have about gggrandmothers father is ,Robert Newman jude [bob]born 1844barrington cambridgeshire and he was in Pentonville prison in 1871 as per Census,Regards Gerda [aust]

[Geoffers]

The Prison may or may not hold records from this period. If you enter 'HMP Pentonville' in a search engine, you should get its postal address.

The National Archives has a number of records concerning prisoners which can be found listed here (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=253)