Looking for Black Sheep

Within minutes of starting her talk Linda Hotchkiss had her audience enthralled at our July meeting. The Lincolnshire genealogist demonstrated with film the sort of documents that are available to help us trace family members who ‘strayed from the straight & narrow’
She spoke of information that belongs to the courts & of police records. These often gave a description of the prisoner & this would delight any researcher. The prisoner’s crime, the sentence imposed by the court & the prison itself would be mentioned. Other documents were displayed & their accessibility for the researcher.
The meaning of legal terms were explained such as the Assize court where a sworn judge attended twice a year. Quarter sessions held four times a year in a county, & petty sessions held in the same place every week.
Newspapers at the time would record criminal events & their outcome.
We saw papers ordering the hanging & the deportation of prisoners for what would appear nowadays as ‘trivial offences’.
At the end of her talk Linda was kept very busy answering questions & we were able to look at the documents she had brought with her.
[Barbara Holmes]