Criminals and Their Records

Do you have criminals in your family tree? It’s really not a big deal, most of us have some sort of unruly character in our tree. What is so good about these character’s? The records they left! These unruly characters left extra paperwork behind for you to follow their hot, little trail.

Today, I spent some time looking through Ancestry’s, “England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791 – 1892.” I was not looking for anything on my family. I just wanted to see what they had. I did a search on a family name, Hilton and the year 1890 (I tried looking at 1820, but the books are a bit light and I did not want to strain my eyes for non-essential research).

Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.

There is a lot of great information on this page. On line 75, we see John Hilton was charged with ‘housebreaking and of receiving stolen goods knowing them to have been stolen.’ It also shows that he was found not guilty.

I have no clue if this gentleman relates to any of my Hilton family (I need to do a lot more research on that family). But, it shows what information can be found if you have one of those skeletons in your families closet. Don’t be afraid to open the door and make the skeleton dance.