Free Resource and Information on Convicted Ancestors

[InstitutionalH]

Hi All,

I hope you're having a fantastic Wednesday!

Let me introduce myself. I'm a budding twenty something year old historian whose always been fascinated by the past: in particular, peripheral people's. What started out as a dissertation on dwarves in ancient greece (that's the shortened version ) ended up as, researching fom friends and family their disabled or imprisoned ancestors.

What I discovered, was a distinct lack of easy to access, free prison/institution resources (short of a train ride to the NA or BL) and so I and a friend have decided to create one  (yes we are fully sane!).

The website is completely free and a labor of love (like labor too it has been bloody painful at times  ) but if you are researching your imprisoned ancestors, feel free to check out our site institutionalhistory.com.

Otherwise, we look forward to taking a more active part in this community! Hello 

[Ruskie]

Welcome to rootschat IH.

Looks like an interesting site. 

[InstitutionalH]

Hi Ruskie!

Thank you kindly and I'm glad you like the site. I've been perusing rootschat for years so it's great to finally be able to give back 

Which forums/threads would you recommend to get involved in for prisons/institutions?

[Ruskie]

I can’t think of a specific forums or threads. Anything of interest could either be in the common room or on the county boards.

Maybe you could enter a few search terms in the “search” box (fourth from the left on the brown bar near the top of the page) and see what comes up?

[majm]

Welcome.

Peripheral people .... what an odd adjective ... anyway,  welcome.

Likely you are already familiar with the excellent free resources listed on the Resources boards for the counties and countries.

JM.

[Maiden Stone]

I've just posted a reply on a thread about a Scotsman sentenced to transportation in 1785 - "banished from Scotland". I asked what happened to prisoners like him who were sentenced to transportation between the start of the American War of Independence and the First Fleet to Australia.

[silaswall]

Thank you for the post. It looks like an interesting and useful site. Good Luck!

[Lidfam]

When I was recently researching my great grandfathers spells in Bristol Prison for non payment of taxes, I found his entries in the Prison registers, but I was only allowed to view the pages in the company of an archivist, who had to cover the names of all other inmates on the pages of my relative. This was in the years leading up to 1911 so I dont believe it was the 100 year privacy rule, but some other form of data protection. If so, would this not apply to your data ?

[coombs]

Sounds a good site. I have at leats 2 ancestor siblings who were transported in the 1800s to Australia. One stoe a gelding and one attacked a fellow drinker in a pub for trying to diffuse a row between him and his father.