Search for your ‘wanted’ relatives on Ancestry.com

ANCESTRY.COM – the worlds largest genealogy service - have just released new information on Irish criminals that has never been digitally searchable before.

In the late 1800s, there was no Garda pulse computer system, but there was a twice weekly newsletter called ‘Hue and Cry’ that documented and described every wanted criminal in Ireland.

The newsletter was a means to communicate secretly between members of the police divisions and contained information on wanted criminals, types of crimes committed, rewards offered, criminals who had been apprehended, missing persons and army deserters. It’s now digitally searchable.

Drogheda Gaol was pretty packed it seemed and in December 1866, William Brady (a returned convict) fled the Scarlet Street premises, dressed in a ‘Drogheda Gaol’ jacket.

In October 1890, Maurice Wolfe - a native of Russia - had a warrant issued after he robbed David Brudno of clothes, including a hat made by Robinson’s of Drogheda.

In July 1893, a man called AJ Ryan was sought for leaving the lodging home of Catherine Durnen without paying.

There’s hundreds of more names featured - you never know what you’ll find!