Ideal for anyone interested  in tracing their roots. This book is very easy to navigate and also provides fascinating insights into the penal system in previous centuries. Well researched and written, this is an excellent reference book. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC of this excellent book

This is a great resource for anyone wanting to trace their British ancestors who may have spent time in a prison. This is fantastic for helping understand how they work and what information you can yield. I'm about to restart my family tree journey so this book has proven invaluable as before I found some details on incarcerated relatives but had not known how to really get more information. Great book.

Like a previous title from this publisher, the content of the book serves as valuable tips and tools for genealogical research across the pond, NOT in the United States reformation and the American penal system. To note, the records and related materials mentioned in the book focus on the United Kingdom, not the United States.

However, I am (still) a librarian who helps patrons with their genealogies and family histories and I found this to be an extremely useful guide for our patrons.

My thanks to NetGalley  and Pen and Sword for a copy of “Tracing Your Prison Ancestors “for an honest review.
 I eagerly look forward to any  new Pen and Sword publications as I know how beneficial they have been to my family history research.
Even as someone who has been compiling their family tree for a while now  I seem to find something of use in every new publication .
A very interesting and informative read even I’f you haven’t a ‘ Black Sheep ‘ in your family !

As I've been tracing my family's history for over thirty years, this book caught my attention.
It was a very interesting read and I even learnt about a gaol in my home town.
The author has certainly done lots of research and I can highly recommend this book

Excellent resource for genealogists and historians on available prison records in the UK.  This book includes a comprehensive history of the prison system and the social and cultural reasons for the changes that ensued. Case studies in each chapter step through the process to uncover information about the prisoner.  Informative illustrations and ephemera accompany the text and help the reader imagine life in Victorian times, for example, and the challenges facing prisoners of the era. A helpful glossary of legal terms and prison terminology is included.

This is a guide to how to find your ancestors.

It tells you about the history of the prisons and gives you case studies of different people.

It was very informative.

This is a helpful resource and tool to help one search for and find their ancestors. I highly recommend it.