United Kingdom Criminal Records

Whether you are just starting to search for your blacksheep ancestors or are at an impass, you should try searching the National Archives in the UK (if your ancestors were from the UK of course).

This site offers useful tips and suggestions for your search as well as providing some of the information themselves.

Good luck!

USA Prison Records

I thought I would direct people to one easy spot to stop and check out over 50 different prisoner index's for various states in the US.

If you go to the site map at Blacksheep Ancestors and scroll down until you see the heading "USA Prisons and Lists of Prisoners", you will find lists of prisoners from around 20 different states.

Hopefully with the thousands of names available there you may find one of your blacksheep ancestors.

Happy hunting!

The Criminal Mind

I thought for a change of pace I would talk about something a little bit different today.

Instead of showing you where to find your blacksheep ancestors I thought I would show you why your blacksheep ancestors were the way they were.

The Evolutionary Psychology and The Male "Criminal" Mind by William A. Spriggs presents some compelling scientific data to demonstrate why criminals resort to a life of crime.

As the author puts it:

"What will be found, I believe, is that there is in fact more than one gene responsible for "criminal aggression," and that these genes act in concert according to the environment in which the "criminal" finds himself. In short, we will find that a stressful environment creates a responsive behavior adaptive to that environment. From the standpoint of evolutionary psychology, these behaviors, are innate, adaptive behaviors -- their motive is not the commission of crimes, but survival. We have a brain and genes that were suited for the savanna of 25,000 years ago, and we still carry them with us today. We must readjust our thinking to reflect that admission."


(Views presented are not necessarily my views)