43,000 historical Scottish prison records released by Scottish Indexes

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10 March 2022
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In a continuation of their Scotland's Criminal Database project, Glasgow based genealogists Emma and Graham Maxwell of Scottish Indexes have released an index to a further 43,000 historical Scottish Prison records.

These have been added to www.scottishindexes.com. Their ongoing project to open up historical criminal records to help people trace their family history is moving on apace and opening up more stories to the global research community.

These latest prison records are predominantly from the prisons of Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and Paisley, with some updates to other prisons around Scotland. Scotland's Criminal Database now includes over 30 prisons from across Scotland.

Exploring the lives of our ancestors

Emma Maxwell, genealogist at Scottish Indexes says, “I love the stories people uncover in these records. These missing pieces of the jigsaw give us the details that help us picture the lives of our ancestors. During this indexing project, we found entries for Dumfries civil prisoners relating to the aliment of children. These could be the clue you’re looking for to discover the father of an illegitimate child. Another entry we found related to James Gunning, a medical student in Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, who was convicted in 1852 for ‘Violating Sepulchres’; better known as ‘body snatching’.”

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You can see a breakdown of the full coverage at Scottish Indexes.

Join Emma and Graham at the Scottish Indexes Conference on 12 March 2022 to hear more about their projects.