LibGuides: Finding Your Famous and Infamous Ancestor: Records

Booking

Mugshots.com
Searchable repository of Law Enforcement booking record photographs taken during investigations. Includes historical mugshots such as mobster Al Capone.
Mugshots.gastongazette.com
Gaston County Mug shots are presented chronologically, by booking date, and remain online for a maximum of 30 days
Gaston County Sheriff’s Office Online Inmate Database
Search for Inmate by name, booking date, or booking number. Inmate Search will only search for bookings from the current year and 2 years prior.
Lincoln County Sheriff's Office Inmate Search
Search police records for events (arrest, traffic citations) by location, name, and date.
Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office
Search and view Arrest that have occured in the past three years within Mecklenburg County. View mugshots and charges, or previous Arrests.
National Archives Mug Shots
Search the National Archives Catalog for the term “mug shots.” Includes historical mugshots such as mobster Al Capone.
Identification Books, ca. 1878 - ca. 1896
This series contains identification cards formerly housed in identification books ("mug books") that the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police compiled and used to assist officers and victims of crime to identify known criminals. This series has been digitized and is now fully available online.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1460515
Records of the Bureau of Prisons, 1870 - 2009
National Archives Record Group 129: "Records of the Bureau of Prisons, 1870 - 2009" includes Series: Inmate Case Files, 7/3/1895 - 11/5/1957; Warden's Notebook Pages, 1934 - 1963; and Inmate Case Files, 1902 - 1922; which contain "mug shots."
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/458

Court: United States

National Archives Criminal Records
Search the National Archives Catalog for record series that include the word criminal. Criminal Register and Criminal Docket Series contains records, some of which may not be available online.
Court Records in the Federal Records Centers
You can order copies of closed bankruptcy, civil, criminal, and court of appeals case files from Federal Records Centers. Before requesting a Criminal Court Record, the case information should be obtained from the Federal Court in which it was filed and closed. Generally, federal court records less than 15 years old are not held by the National Archives and are still in the possession of individual courts.
To obtain access to those records, researchers must contact the appropriate federal court.
Court Locator | United States Courts
Search directory of Federal Courts by ZIP Code or city and state, using the state's two-letter postal code (e.g. Lincoln, NE), to find nearby court locations in your district or circuit.
Find a Case (PACER) | United States Courts
Since 1999, many case files are maintained electronically and are available through the internet-based Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) service. PACER allows anyone with an account to search and locate appellate, district, and bankruptcy court case and docket information using PACER Case Locator. Online access is provided for a fee by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts through PACER. The court may refer you to a Federal Records Center to obtain copies.
FBI Case Files
Case files cover important investigations by an agency of the US government called the Bureau of Investigation, later known as the FBI.
Go to: https://fold3library.proquest.com/barcode?accountid=11047 Log into Fold3 with your library card
American state trials; a collection of the important and interesting criminal trials which have taken place in the United States from the beginning of our government to the present day.
by John Davison Lawson. American state trials on HathiTrust Digital Library
American state trials; a collection of the important and interesting criminal trials which have taken place in the United States from the beginning of our government to the present day.
by John Davison Lawson. American state trials on Archive.org
www.leagle.com
Leagle provides United States Court opinions and decisions handed down by Trial Courts, Appellate Courts and Supreme Courts, spanning Civil, Criminal, Family, Tax or Bankruptcy litigations. Search by case, party, attorney, and judge name, or by keyword.
Casetext
Search case law. Requires free account.
Case Files of Attorneys, Agents, Pensioners, and Others
Case Files of Attorneys, Agents, Pensioners, and Others Relating to the Prosecution of Pension Claims and the Investigation of Fraudulent Practices, ca. 1886 - 1933. (National Archives Identifier 2538355) This series has been partially digitized.
Google Scholar
Users can search Google Scholar's legal database of US cases and read published opinions of US state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950, US federal district, appellate, tax, and bankruptcy courts since 1923 and US Supreme Court cases since 1791.

Ancestry Library Edition: Court, Governmental & Criminal Records

Search by name and keyword for records created in response to criminal offenses. Records include prisoner indexes, commutations, pardons, and executions. Collections include "U.S., Album of Criminals, 1906"; "U.S. Circuit Court Criminal Case Files, 1790-1871"; "North Carolina, State Supreme Court Case Files, 1800-1909"; "U.S., F.B.I. Deceased Criminal Identification Files, 1971-1994"; and more. Ancestry Library Edition is only available in all Gaston County Public Library branches.

Court: North Carolina

Obtaining Court Records | North Carolina Judicial Branch
Find out how to obtain court records. Information about how to view records in criminal cases, remove cases from your criminal record, view records of civil, special proceeding, or estates cases, and more.
North Carolina Offender Public Information Search/ Inmate Locator
Search by name or inmate ID for up-to-date information on North Carolina state prison inmates, probationers, and parolees. This database from the NC Department of Public Safety and the former NC Department of Correction contains historical information back to 1972. Does not include county jail information.
The North Carolina Court System
"Through these pages attorneys and citizens have online access to court calendars, schedules, local rules, judicial forms, court officials and court contract information."
North Carolina, State Supreme Court Case Files, 1800-1909
Family Search has images of original case files from the North Carolina State Supreme Court. This collection is being published as images become available. (Also available in Ancestry Library Edition).
Court Reports Digital Collection
North Carolina Reports (1778 - ongoing) and North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports (1968 - ongoing) contain information about the final outcome of cases heard in North Carolina’s Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.
District Superior Court Records Digital Collection
Collection currently contains only one district, Edenton District, from 1756 to 1806. Writs, transcripts, narratives, inventories of estates, notes, bonds, appeals, and subpoenas relating to the settlement of estates in the counties under the jurisdiction of the Edenton District Superior Court. It also includes a short subseries of guardians' records (1760- 1805) arranged by name of the ward, and records of unnamed decedents and wards.
North Carolina reports : cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of North Carolina.
North Carolina reports on HathiTrust Digital Library. (Also check Google Books for different volumes)
North Carolina Reports: Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of North Carolina
North Carolina reports on Google Books.
The Encyclopedic Digest of North Carolina Reports
Being a Complete Encyclopedia and Digest of All the North Carolina Case Law Up to and Including Volume 167, North Carolina Reports, and Volumes 1 to 83, Southeastern Reporter, Volume 3
Reports of Cases at Law Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of North Carolina
Google Scholar
Users can search Google Scholar's legal database of US cases and read published opinions of US state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950, US federal district, appellate, tax, and bankruptcy courts since 1923 and US Supreme Court cases since 1791.

Ancestry Library Edition: Court, Governmental & Criminal Records

Search by name and keyword for records created in response to criminal offenses. Records include prisoner indexes, commutations, pardons, and executions. Collections include "U.S., Album of Criminals, 1906"; "U.S. Circuit Court Criminal Case Files, 1790-1871"; "North Carolina, State Supreme Court Case Files, 1800-1909"; "U.S., F.B.I. Deceased Criminal Identification Files, 1971-1994"; and more. Ancestry Library Edition is only available in all Gaston County Public Library branches.

Court: Gaston County, NC

Microfilm copies of the following Gaston County Clerk of Superior Court records are in the North Carolina Collection at Gastonia Main Library:

Minute docket, Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 1847-1860;
Minute docket, Superior Court, 1847-1885;
Minutes, Superior Court, 1897-1917.

The State Archives of North Carolina have the following records:

Gaston County Criminal Action Papers 1860-1910
Call Number: CR.040.326.1 - CR.040.326.32
MARS Id: 240.31.1 (Box)

Gaston County Appearance Docket, Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions 1847-1868
Call Number: CR.040.303.1
MARS Id: 240.8.1 (Box)

Search the Discover Online Catalog for these records by call number.

Gaston County Courts
"Through these pages attorneys and citizens have online access to court calendars, schedules, local rules, judicial forms, court officials and court contract information."

Court: South Carolina

Criminal Court Records, 1769 - 1944 (South Carolina)
Select the South Carolina Archives Record Group, "Criminal Court Records, 1769 - 1944" to search records for South Carolina.
Reports of cases and matters determined by the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of South Carolina.

Prison

Ancestry Library Edition: Court, Governmental & Criminal Records
Search by name and keyword for records created in response to criminal offenses. Records include prisoner indexes, commutations, pardons, and executions. Coverage includes prison records for Newgate, NY, Sing Sing, NY, Alcatraz, CA, and Leavenworth, KS, as well as for states such as Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
Ancestry Library Edition is available in all library branches.

North Carolina State Prison by William G. Hinkle; Gregory S. Taylor
Call Number: 365.975 HIN N.C.
ISBN: 9781467115162
Publication Date: 2016-02-29

Ancestry Library Edition: U.S. Federal Census - 1880 Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes
Includes Inhabitants in Prison. Ancestry Library Edition is available in all library branches.
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary Case Files
Alphabetical by Surname Index includes name, inmate number, race, age, court, and crime. Records located at the National Archives in Atlanta. To request copies of the file, you can contact the Atlanta facility directly.
https://www.archives.gov/atlanta/contacts.html
Records of the Bureau of Prisons, 1870 - 2009
National Archives Record Group 129: "Records of the Bureau of Prisons, 1870 - 2009" includes Series: Inmate Case Files, 7/3/1895 - 11/5/1957; Warden's Notebook Pages, 1934 - 1963; and Inmate Case Files, 1902 - 1922; which contain "mug shots."
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/458

Executions

NC Department of Public Safety: List of Persons Executed
https://www.ncdps.gov/Adult-Corrections/Prisons/Death-Penalty/List-of-persons-executed

Legal Executions in North Carolina and South Carolina: a comprehensive registry, 1866-1962 by Daniel Allen Hearn
Call Number: 364.66 HEA NCC
ISBN: 9780786495399
Publication Date: 2015-03-02
"Presented in chronological order, this book provides essential details about the 1,152 men and women who were legally put to death in North and South Carolina during the century after the Civil War. Each entry contains information about the criminals themselves and the deeds which cost them their lives"
Until He Is Dead: capital punishment in the western North Carolina history by James Thomas Rusher
Call Number: 364.66 RUS N.C.
ISBN: 1887905731
Publication Date: 2003-12-01

Asylums

Microfilm copies of the following Gaston County records are in the North Carolina Collection:

Gaston County Clerk of Superior Court

Index to lunacy & inebriety, 1963-1969;
Record of lunancy, 1899-1968 (vols. 1-10);

Ancestry Library Edition: U.S. Federal Census - 1880 Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes
This supplemental schedule included different forms to enumerate the following classes of individuals:
Insane; Idiots; Deaf-mutes; Blind; Paupers and Indigent persons; Homeless children; Prisoners.
Located in the following databases:
HeritageQuest available at home via NC LIVE (Library Card required).
Ancestry Library Edition is only available in all library branches.
Dorothea Dix Hospital Cemetery, Raleigh, Wake County, N.C.
"This cemetery served as the final resting place for the many impoverished patients who were laid to rest on the grounds of the facility which treated them. Volunteers researched the State Archives and the Medical Records Department to identify the graves. Over 750 of the 958 graves were identified."
State Agency Finding Aid: Dorothea Dix Hospital, 1881-1956
Information about Dorothea Dix Hospital records at the State Archives of North Carolina.
Annual Report of the Board of Directors and the Superintendent of the North Carolina Insane Asylum, for the Year Ending November 30, 1884
Report shows circumstances of each case discharged, including Deaths. No Names are provided, but may be cross referenced with Dorothea Dix Hospital cemetery record.

The North Carolina Genealogical Society journal.
Call Number: 929.1 NOR NCC
Volume 43 (2017) Number 1. NC Insane Asylum in Raleigh – Wake & Vance Counties (c. 1856-1889).
Volume 43 (2017) Number 3. NC Insane Asylum in Raleigh (c. 1856-1889)

Asylum Projects Genealogical Requests
Information about making mental health records requests for some states.

Court Martial

Military Personnel Records, SF-180. Use Standard Form 180 (SF-180) to request military service records. Records may contain copies of court martial documents.
Go to: https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/standard-form-180.html

Requesting Copies of Older (pre-WWI) Military Service Records includes the NATF forms that must be submitted for pension and military records. There is a fee.
Go to: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/pre-ww-1-records.html

Series: Court Martial Case Files, 12/1800 - 10/1894. Series contains some records online and is part of Record Group 153: Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army), 1792 - 2010.
Go to: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/301659

Records of General Courts-martial and Courts of Inquiry of the Navy Department, 1799-1867. NARA Series M273. Information given in the records includes, when applicable; name of the sailor charged; his rating, ship or station, and other service information; the alleged offense; place and date of trial; and the sentence.
Go to: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/573135

Civil War Courts-Martial of North Carolina Troops by Aldo S. Perry
Call Number: 973.7 PER NCC
ISBN: 9780786465859
Publication Date: 2012-07-26