Historic Records

[chickx]

We've been trying to find out more about a great uncle who died in 1941 and family rumours are he may have spent some time in the late 30's in prison

Is there anyway of accessing court or prison records from this time? 

 

[10ClarionSt]

I'm no expert and wouldn't know about the records you refer to, but if you know the town or city where this happened, it may be in the local papers from that time. There are lots of newspaper archives available, but lots of them are only on microfiche, which means going to the local library. But some are online.

I was stunned and shocked to learn about the criminal activities of my grandfather, who died before I was born. My dad never, ever spoke about him and now I know why. Sometimes it pays not to look back. As someone once said: the past is another country. They do things differently there.

[Old_Geezer]

Oh I wouldn't say it doesn't pay to look back just because you found one of the family rogues.

[chickx]

He had 11 brothers & 2 sisters and all of their children were told different stories about him all of which portrayed him as a rogue or wide boy as my grandma used to call him. There's a 5 year period up to 1940 when he moved from Newcastle down to southern England that we can find very little detail about unfortunately 

[Barmaid]

I think prison records are subject to 100 year closure rule (although I am not sure about this).  I'd see if I could find him on the 1939 Register which is on ancestry and findmypast (and both should be available at your local library).  Other than that, newspapers are a great source.  I think on the British Newspaper Archive you can search for free and can see three articles on a trial basis.

[10ClarionSt]

The 1939 register is a good idea, barmaid. It was something that had to be done fairly quickly as the govt needed to know about the population and how to use it for the war.