Legal and Criminal Records

Find your criminal ancestors with these, mostly free, historical crime and punishment records online. Do you have a black sheep or two in your family tree?

  • Crime, Prisons & Punishment
    Search for your ancestors in over 6 million records of criminals who passed through the justice system in England and Wales between 1770 and 1935 on Find My Past.
  • Old Bailey Online
    The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 is a searchable database containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London’s central criminal court.
  • Blacksheep Ancestors
    Search for your Blacksheep Ancestors in Free Genealogical Prison and Convict Records, Historical Court Records, Executions, Insane Asylum Records and Biographies of Famous Outlaws, Criminals & Pirates in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.
  • Capital Punishment UK
    View complete listings of British executions, execution methods and individual cases. A great resource for finding criminal ancestors.
  • Criminals and Convicts
    The National Archives UK has a handy page of links and resources for finding criminal ancestors.
  • Newgate Calendar
    The Newgate Calendar was a monthly publication of executed prisoners of Newgate prison in London. It’s possible to view lists of prisoners and their crimes on this website.
  • British Executions
    This site has the details of most criminal executions in Britain between 1100-1964.
  • Medieval Murder Maps
    Discover murders, violence and justice in London, York and Oxford with these interactive maps.
  • London Lives
    London Lives features more than 240,000 pages of records taken from criminal justice and local government agencies in the capital between 1690 – 1800.
  • Victorian Crime & Punishment
    Victorian Crime & Punishment covers some criminal ancestors from 19th century UK. There is a searchable database of prisoners with many details of each criminal and their crimes.
  • Warwickshire Prisoners 1801-1900
    Over 30,000 entries which are searchable by name, place and crime. A great resource for finding your Warwickshire criminal ancestors.
  • Bedfordshire Gaol Register
    The database presently covers the period between 1801 and 1879, with some gaps, but it’s updated every week.
  • Convict Transportation 1787-1870
    Contains the registers of over 125,000 convicts who were transported to Australia.
  • York Assizes 1785 – 1851
    An index of over 8,000 names divided into alphabetical sections. A great source for early criminal ancestors.
  • Welsh Crime & Punishment
    The Crime and Punishment database comprises data about crimes, criminals and punishments included in the gaol files of the Court of Great Sessions in Wales from 1730 until its abolition in 1830. The Court could try all types of crimes, from petty thefts to high treason.
  • Cause Papers Database
    The Cause Papers Database is a searchable catalogue of more than 14,000 cause papers relating to cases heard between 1300 and 1858 in the Church Courts of the diocese of York.
  • Aylesbury Gaol Prisoners
    The online database with details of prisoners entering the County Gaol in Aylesbury in the 1870s.
  • Scottish Borders Prison Database
    Search the Scottish Borders Prison Database for free and find your criminal ancestors with ease. Search by name, surname, birth year, prison or place.
  • Dumfries Jail Books and Bail Bond Registers
    There are currently 1599 records of criminals and their crimes. Searchable by name, crime, date and location.
  • Victorian prisoners’ photograph albums 1872-1873
    These records are albums containing photos and details of prisoners in Wandsworth prison from 1872 to 1873.
  • Irish Prison Registers 1790-1924
    Discover if your ancestor served time in an Irish gaol between 1790 and 1924. In the surviving records of prisons across Ireland you can find the stories of more than 3 million people. Was your ancestor a villainous rogue or a victim of circumstances? Search the Irish Prison Registers and find out.