When a genealogist discovers a criminal way back in the family tree, he or she needs to know how to trace that person. David Hawkings here offers practical in-depth guidelines for researching these criminal ancestors, many of whom were 'obliged' to steal for mere survival and suffered imprisonment for the most trivial offences. His pioneering study includes surveys of material held by all County and Borough Record Offices, the Public Record Office, police archives and other repositories, as well as numerous example cases and illustrations, appendices with source material and a case history to show the extent to which one individual criminal can be researched.

This unique and richly illustrated book provides the essential research and reference tool which no genealogist, social historian, criminologist or the merely curious should be without.