During the past few days, I’ve shared some search strategies for genealogy along with some suggestions to locate ancestors who seemed to have left few records.

One record category that I have so far omitted is that of Criminal Records. What if the reason your person of interest is so hard to find is because he/she was convicted of a crime, or even of misdemeanor offenses?

Well, I’ve had several occasions where I’ve come across someone in the family tree who led a somewhat unsavory life. What did I do to learn more about them?

1. Local Newspapers & Government Offices – People today claim to have no privacy with online accessibility. The truth is local newspapers invaded everyone’s privacy long before the internet was a seedling in anyone’s mind. Not only did they publish lists of births, marriages, divorces and deaths, the social column reported who was visiting in town and who left town, along with sundry other tidbits of gossip, including public drunkenness, calls to the local police/sheriff and accompanying court appearances. Always begin at the local level. Seek out local newspapers. If you don’t find them on subscription sites, contact the local library. Ask about the newspaper and if the library maintains vertical files on topics or families. Also, contact the local courthouse to ask about court record accessibility. Depending on the severity of the infraction, state and national newspapers might also publish versions of the story with different details. Depending on the size of the town, and how recent the event is, contacting the police department might be helpful.
2. Local and Regional Historical Societies – Similar to local libraries, historical societies are interested in what happened in the area through the years. Few historical societies offer online images so a phone call, visit or letter/email might produce a huge amount of information. It is well worth the time making the contact.
3. Cyndi’s List – Search the category of Prison, Prisoners and Outlaws to find potential resources.

4. Linkpendium – Similar to Cyndi’s List, Linkpendium is a massive list of categories and links. However, you will need to search surnames and localities individually to seek out criminal records.

5. Ancestry, MyHeritage and FamilySearch also have links to criminal records. However, each of these websites requires more detailed searching. Ancestry has 67 results with the “prison” keyword and an additional 14 with the keyword of “crime.” MyHeritage offers 37 results for prison records. A keyword search for “prison” on FamilySearch brings up a list of 17 hits, but “crime” produces a much longer list of results. You’ll have to try various keywords to get the best results.

There are several researchers who specialize in criminal record research. If your local genealogy society is looking for speakers, Ron Arons, who has passed away, published WANTED! U.S. Criminal Records Sources & Research Methodology.

Gwen Kubberness writes the Criminal Genealogy blog, which might give you some research ideas.

Justin Cascio hosts Mafia Genealogy.

Good luck with your research. Accessing criminal record resources takes some energy, but the results can be eye-opening in understanding an ancestor’s life choices.