Another quick, timely post, on Irish genealogical resources.
Recently, the good people at FamilySearch.org, in conjunction with the other good people at findmypast.ie, have made the Irish Prison Registers, 1790-1924 available online.
The FamilySearch site, which has had a mention here before, is a free resource. Under this category, they provide a summary of any matching prison record on their website – and you can visit one of their centres to see an image of the original record.
A sample record for some poor sod who went to prison for stealing apples in 1854 is shown below (name obscured to protect the guilty) – what a thing to go to prison for!
Details recorded include the individual’s name, aliases and age, and the offence, event date and place.
Interestingly, when I searched for the same individual on findmypast.ie, a paid resource, it didn’t show up any matches under prison registers, but it did return a bundle of other records involving possibly the same individual as both a defendant and witness in court records.
Anyway – I’m off now to have a bit of fun finding out whether any of my ancestors got up to any interesting naughtiness. If you find anything exciting in your own family history, do share in the comments! 🙂
