Kirkdale Gaol records

[ontheside]

Much obliged for this helpful info. I'm on the wigan-roots yahoo group so to share the results of my painful search for a specific prisoner Agnes Welsh jailed in 1839 I've started a twitter account at @wiganprisons. Do follow and direct message me.

[dotty]

Have you seeen the article in the Preston Chronicle about thethe offences and sentence ?

Dotty

[ontheside]

Yes thanks, I saw the 26Jan1839 issue online. The info at National Archives Kew (PCOM2/2/341 Prison records Wigan 1832-1843) was fuller and gave the lesser charges as well as  identifying Kirkdale, which is why I found this thread. I'll need to visit Wigan and/or Liverpool to pin down Agnes Walsh's next of kin or address.

see more from my quest on  @wiganprisons

best wishes

Tony

[ontheside]

I decided in May that I wasn’t going to get anywhere soon with the Agness Walch that  lived in 1841 with my gggfather John Walch at Brick Kiln Lane and so I waited until I could visit Kew and the Wigan Archives to identify the similarly named and aged 1839 convict I found on ancestry.com

From Kew I found that in 1832 prisoners arrived at court from Kirkdale House of Correction, but it didn’t say where they were sent. Then I found that some documents catalogued at Kew are kept  in the Wigan Archives at Leigh Town Hall.

These state that Agness Welsh was a singlewoman, was committed to Kirkdale House of Correction, and that she claimed to have a daughter in Bolton in 1838.

I now need to go to the William Brown Library in  Liverpool, where the Kirkdale records are said to be stored.

I’ve posted a much fuller report  on a new Twitter account @wiganprisons which everyone is welcome to follow. It’s easy to follow someone via twitter.com . Shout if you want tips on how to.

I’m doing the Twitter because I’ve now received help from five different forums, and expect to find more. They won’t all want all the unfolding details of this arcane subject cluttering up their forums. If the moderator asks me to, I’ll post them all here!

[marie85]

Hi, I wondered if you could please tell me what the A2A sites are that are mentioned here please? I'm looking for a relative that was in kirkdale gaol as a 12 year old lad, and wondered if I could find records anywhere that would tell me why?
Thanks in advance
Marie

[andrewalston]

A2A (Access to Archives) was a search engine associated with the National Archives. It has since been retired, and "Discovery" (http://http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/) has been enhanced to provide similar coverage. Until recently, a2a.org.uk still pointed at Discovery, but I've just tried it again and the old url is now dead.