A major new set of prison registers from Barlinnie prison in Glasgow has gone online.
The set of 180,000 records from Scotland’s largest prison has been published on ScotlandsPeople, the Scottish government’s family history website.
The records date from the prison’s founding in 1882 until 1899.
The collection can be searched by name and features digitised images of the original registers.
The registers contain detailed information on prisoners who were held at the prison. Each prisoner’s register entry records:
- His date of admission to the prison
- Details of any previous imprisonments
- His name, including any aliases
- His age
- His height
- His marital status
- His place of residence, divided into ‘Where Born’, ‘Late Residence’ and ‘where spent the greater part of Life’
- His weight on admission and on release
- Any distinguishing marks
- The nature of his offence
- His occupation
- His religion
- Whether he was literate
- Whether he received education while in prison
- His state of health on admission
- His date of trial
- Whether he was convicted or acquitted
- The sentence received
- His conduct in prison
The record set also includes a photograph album with over 2000 photographs of prisoners.
The records include information about young people who were put in the prison. For example, they show that on 31 January 1883, 15-year-old James Duffy, alias James Davie or James Carroll, was admitted. He was a labourer from Glasgow and his crime was “Attempt to Commit Theft”.
