Hi
I'd be very interested in and grateful for any views or suggestions on this issue.
I am researching a distant relative who had a 'colourful' career as a small time scammer - card-sharping and the like - around England, Wales and, apparently France in the first two decades of the twentieth century. He really wasn't all that successful it would seem, and was evidently well known to the police.
He figures periodically in newspaper reporting of the time, principally when he is coming before the courts. His biggest infamy that I have found to date led to a court appearance in 1920 where a Detective Sergeant from Scotland Yard CID (named) was called as a witness. He asserted that the police had been following his 'exploits' for 16 or 17 years and that he had served a short prison sentence in France some years previously for a similar offence.
The information I have on my distant forebear is very patchy at best. I know nothing of the incident or imprisonment in France, or of many other aspects of his life and 'career'. I would love to know more and to fill in some of the many gaps, and the police record would be absolutely invaluable in doing this.
I hasten to add that my relative has been deceased for over sixty years, and that his only child pre-deceased him. Privacy is always an issue to be considered, but in this case there are no direct descendants living, and that has been the case for many decades.
I approached the National Police Library in the Midlands in very general terms to see what there might be of his record that could be made available. I understand that, even all these years later, it might be possible to access only a sanitised version of my relative's record. But in any event, the (very polite) response I received was that, unfortunately from the point of view of my research, the Library was for the use of serving Police Officers only.
I fully appreciate and accept that of course, and if that is the end of the road, the so it must be. But in the interest of researching my relative and filling in the many gaps that the police record would assist with, I wonder if any other researchers had looked into this?
Might it be possible to arrange an inter-library loan between the National Police Library and another reputable research library where the information could be viewed? Or maybe there is some other possible mechanism?
Any suggestions or advice, particularly from anyone who has had a similar research experience would be great appreciated.
Cheers
