Wanted: your ancestors who may have committed historic crimes

Family historians are using a newly-digitised list of ‘proclamations’ from between 1821 and 1860 to seek out namesakes who might have been involved in criminal activity

Fiona Carroll, solicitor and project manager for the Law Reform Commission: ‘It definitely offers a new element to a person’s family tree.’ Picture: Fergal Phillips

Family historians are using a recently published archive to trace whether their relatives were featured in the Irish equivalent of “wanted” posters from 200 years ago, a legal researcher has said.

Fiona Carroll, a solicitor who is leading the Law Reform Commission’s Statute Law Revision Programme (SLRP), has found that people are using a list her office recently digitised to identify namesakes involved in a range of historic criminal activity.

Carroll was referring to a ...