Mrs Watson wrote: > Hello After being sentenced to three months imprisonment, my gt gt > grandfather, William Naylor of Bakewell left for New York in Jan > 1897, arriving there on 2 Feb 1897. > > I can't find when he returns to England. Ancestry has the inbound passenger lists but he may have worked his passage back rather than being a passenger. I'm not sure whether crew would be listed. > it must have been in 1897 as his son was born in Bakewell in June > 1898. I don't have any reason to think the child wasn't his. In > Nov 1898 he is at Bakewell Petty Sessions, and in Jan 1899 he died > in Bakewell. I'd suggest keeping an open mind on whether the child was his. Any child born to a married woman is *assumed* to be her husband's whether that were so or not. It may even say on the birth certificate he was the father. The child would carry the mother's married surname regardless of whether she was married or a widow. > I've searched passenger arrival records for 1897/8, including > variant spellings, but can't find him anywhere. I am wondering, > since he had been sentenced to prison, is it likely that he would > be listed somewhere else if he was arrested when he arrived in the > UK? How do you mean "listed somewhere else"? If he served his sentence, went to America then returned to England, he would with be in the passenger manifest or with the crew. There wouldn't have been a separate list for ex-felons. Is there any reason why you think he might have been re-arrested? If he didn't serve his sentence, he would most likely have been arrested when he returned to his home. > I'd like to find out when he arrives back to see if he did in fact > serve his prison sentence, so any suggestions would be most > welcome. The record office should have the details of his sentence together with where and if he served it. It's probably the Petty Sessions records you would need. I don't think they are online. If he'd absconded, then he'd be unlikely to return to his home town. He would have been aware he would probably be arrested. The fact he did return home suggests he did serve his sentence. He wouldn't have served a shorter sentence for time served. Normally the time between arrest, trial and sentence would have been much shorter than it is now. They didn't get time off for good behaviour either. <Awaits list member who knows otherwise :))> Think 19th century, not 20th/21st. He'd almost certainly have been taken down straightaway. It was only a short sentence, even by the standards of the day. It's possible he went to America to cover the fact he had been sent to prison so when he returned he could say, truthfully, he'd been there and let whoever he was talking to conclude he'd been there the whole time. Do you have the child's birth certificate? Do you have your man's death certificate? Try the local papers for any reports as well. They may have more detail. Also look at the incoming passenger and crew lists up to and including Jan 1899. -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Ashcott, Shapwick, Greinton and Clutton, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk