Ideas please !

[scrapcat]

I've been tracing my family tree for a while and I'm pleased with what I've found out so far but now I want to flesh a few people out a bit as it were. I've recently heard that one of my fairly close relatives that I never met (now dead) spent time in prison ( which explains why noone will talk about him...) and I'd love to find out when and why.... The older generation of my family don't know that I know (and it has never been mentioned at all) so I couldn't really ask them without opening a real can of worms..

It would have been in the 50s or maybe early 60s. Is there anyway I could find out ? I thought of searching the local papers, as I know where he lived, but now I'm in Canada that will be difficult and with so little info to go on I wouldn't know where to start.

He also fought in WW2 - can we get RAF records at all for that period yet or are they still secret ?

Thanks :D

[scrapcat]

Forgot to say that I don't think it was a crime against a person but something financial - he was an accountant so probably some sort of fraud - didn't want you to think I was related to a murderer or anything...... ;)

[jantyannie]

not used this site myself but they do seem to have access to archives of some uk newspapers Newspaperarchive.com (http://www.newspaperarchive.com/BrowsePapers.aspx)

[julieann]

Vicky I wrote to the RAF to get more details on my Grandad. I still haven't sent back. but basically they will only let his nearest living relative have the info. In my case I need my Mum to sign for the details plus there's a £25.00 charge. It's all done manually as it's not on computer. If you would like the contact details i'll find them for you.

As with the prison I can't help. Maybe the prison service can point you in the right direction they might know who would hold records. Good Luck.

[scrapcat]

Thanks ladies - I'll go and check out the newspaper site and I'd love the RAF contact details if you could send them to me Julieann - that'd be great :)

Any more help much appreciated :)

[GardenAngel]

Hi Vicky
Can't offer you much help on this but just a couple of suggestions. I don't think the official records will be open to the public yet - I think it's usually 100 years before they are opened. But the local reference library where he lived may keep microfiched copies of the local newspaper - mine does, they have a fab local historian based there who is a great source of help. I've looked at copies of our local paper from 80 years ago and found some great stuff. But I think you would need to be quite specific about the date. Seeing as you live in Canada it might be worth writing to the library to see if they can help.

A bit of a long shot but have you tried putting his name (in inverted commas, eg "Joe Bloggs") into a Google search just to see if anything comes up?

Have you tried looking on the internet to see if there are any websites for the place he lived? Many people have their own websites for local history (I found a great one for St Helens and another for Wigan - they have tons of info). Same for WW2 - if you know his regiment (if that's the right word) try putting it into Google. There are quite a few personal websites specific to certain regiments.

Kerry x