Your Blacksheep-Do they amuse you?

[ThrelfallYorky]

There is this: if you have ancestors who have featured in Court, and I mean the criminal rather than the royal ones, it must make it a bit easier to find them. As far as I know, none of mine have, so in the 1861 census, when several are missing, it's a nuisance to try to seek them out.
It also makes a change from my unrelenting trudge of carpenters / farmers/ tradesmen, and gives you far  better stories to hang on your trees.
You are fortunate, those of you with Crimrelatives!!

[Gillg]

And if your ancestors were sent to jail, there will be a record of their height, build, hair and eye colour and ability to read and write in.  So now I know what one of my dodgier ancestors looked like back in the early 19th century.  He was jailed twice - once for poaching and once for neglecting his family.  His 10 year old son Dennis was also sent to reform school for stealing.  You can see his picture and details here:-
http://vcp.e2bn.org/prisoners/2043-1811-dennis-fairey.html
Can't help feeling that he was trying to help out for his rather large family, as it was around Christmas that he stole the fruit and bread.  He looks as though butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.
 

[RW1]

My great-great aunt married a guy who drugged her on their wedding night and stole all her jewellery.....

Oh, and he was already bigamously married to someone else!

[Ayashi]

A lot of effort to go to to nick jewellery!

[chinapaddy]

I got one  The son of my 4x GG Grandfather....
He was a music teacher in England that 'eloped' with his very young student. They were eventually caught and he absconded to USA. Went to the trouble of changing his name to Arthur Clifton, presumably to avoid his pursuers and had a 'bounty' on his head of 100 pounds

Philharmonic Society Minutes: Meeting, December 12, 1816
December 9, 1816
I beg you will inform the Gentlemen of the Philharmonic Society that I withdraw myself as a Member from
that Society; Wishing them
all, Health and Prosperity
--
December 12, 1816
It was moved by Mr. Webbe and seconded by Mr. Neate that 'This Society with feelings of the utmost
indignation of the discovery that Mr P. A. Corri has been guilty of atrocious conduct which [makes] him at
on
ce a disgrace to his profession, and to Society at large, anxiously hasten to express their horror of having
associated with such a man, and do formally expel him from their Body for ever.' [Read to the members of
the Philharmonic at General Meeting: Janua
ry 15, 1817; Entered into minutes.]
Advertisement in
The Euterpiad, 1822
ADVERTISEMENT, 100 REWARD
Whereas, Philip Anthony Corri, musical composer and teacher, left this country about five years ago for
New York, and his personal abode is desired to be k
nown to the advertiser, but not for any hostile purpose,
this is to give notice whoever will, within six months from this date, furnish satisfaction to Mr. Harmer,
solicitor, Hatton Garden, of the present residence of the said Mr. Corri, so that an intervi
ew may be
obtained with him, shall be paid a reward of 100.
N.B. It has been reported that the above
-
named P. A. Corri, after his arrival at New York, proceeded to
Philadelphia, thence to Baltimore and there married a Quaker lady. It has also been asserted
that he is
returned to England. The said P. A. Corri has a sharp, Italian visage, sallow complexion, black curly hair,
black eyes, and is bald on the crown of the head. He is forty years of age, five feet eight inches high, and
has a soft voice and a gent
lemanly manner. London, June 17, 1822.

[tillypeg]

Why not wash your black sheep down the plug hole with this bar of soap?   

[Redroger]

Mainly black sheep in my tree. The only two potential white sheep are both clergymen.My great grandfather was "dismembered" from a Baptist group i the 19th century for "Fornication and drink" It obviously means he was removed from group membership and not chopped into little pieces as he was removed again, this time for drink only as he had married my great grandmother just in time!!

[Nats185]

I got one  The son of my 4x GG Grandfather....
He was a music teacher in England that 'eloped' with his very young student. They were eventually caught and he absconded to USA. Went to the trouble of changing his name to Arthur Clifton, presumably to avoid his pursuers and had a 'bounty' on his head of 100 pounds

Philharmonic Society Minutes: Meeting, December 12, 1816
December 9, 1816
I beg you will inform the Gentlemen of the Philharmonic Society that I withdraw myself as a Member from
that Society; Wishing them
all, Health and Prosperity
--
December 12, 1816
It was moved by Mr. Webbe and seconded by Mr. Neate that 'This Society with feelings of the utmost
indignation of the discovery that Mr P. A. Corri has been guilty of atrocious conduct which [makes] him at
on
ce a disgrace to his profession, and to Society at large, anxiously hasten to express their horror of having
associated with such a man, and do formally expel him from their Body for ever.' [Read to the members of
the Philharmonic at General Meeting: Janua
ry 15, 1817; Entered into minutes.]
Advertisement in
The Euterpiad, 1822
ADVERTISEMENT, 100 REWARD
Whereas, Philip Anthony Corri, musical composer and teacher, left this country about five years ago for
New York, and his personal abode is desired to be k
nown to the advertiser, but not for any hostile purpose,
this is to give notice whoever will, within six months from this date, furnish satisfaction to Mr. Harmer,
solicitor, Hatton Garden, of the present residence of the said Mr. Corri, so that an intervi
ew may be
obtained with him, shall be paid a reward of 100.
N.B. It has been reported that the above
-
named P. A. Corri, after his arrival at New York, proceeded to
Philadelphia, thence to Baltimore and there married a Quaker lady. It has also been asserted
that he is
returned to England. The said P. A. Corri has a sharp, Italian visage, sallow complexion, black curly hair,
black eyes, and is bald on the crown of the head. He is forty years of age, five feet eight inches high, and
has a soft voice and a gent
lemanly manner. London, June 17, 1822.

Hello chinapaddy! Just wanted to add that Domenico Corri is also my 4x great grandfather! Would love to chat it that's possible on here?

[Nifty1]

I have two late uncles who were caught by police when they tried to steal a van with a load of televisions in it in the mid to late 1960s. They did not realise that there were police officers  amongst the van’s cargo and they were arrested. They had a stay in Oxford prison for there trouble. How can I substantiate this story? I think that it took place in London or the Home Counties to the west of London.

I did it. Not televisions. That quoted is what my cousin told me.  It was reported in the Maidenhead Advertiser in the mid 1960s. Funny thing is, I noticed that one of the men charged was the man who signed as Informant on my father's death certificate. Father obviously knew a few dodgy characters, he would be an obvious link between the perpetrators of the lorry full of brass plumbing fittings valued at £6,000 - £10,000 being stolen from a pub car park at Loudwater and driven to my uncles comparatively secluded country property.

In nearly twenty years of FR I have all but brought many of my ancestors to life. My maternal gf was a quite wealthy cafe proprietor, he was also a compulsive gambler also a greyhound and race horse owner who was obviously dabbling in the black market during and after the war. He and his second son were in Home Guard. Part of their  duties was to guard the bonded warehouse where US Lend Lease material was stored. I do so wonder where the American car (of the same type used as Staff Cars for high ranking officers that my grandfather used to be chauffeured around in during the post war years) came from.

The cousin who told me is/was Norman Kirtland.
I have been trying to contact him, No reply. How can I check his well being ? There is no reply from his phone or e-mail.