Hi Janie Firstly passenger lists are not complete, some have been lost or destroyed And they are for passengers, could he have worked his passage as a crew member If your man had a sentence hanging over him he would surely not used his own name but would have used a false name or alias He is more likely to have changed his surname than first name and or age but may have changed the lot just in case Although he may have left from any port, as a starting point try all Williams who left New York to arrive back in the UK in 1897, if you add his birth year of 1864 +/- 1 year it still gets 139 hits And that is assuming he didn't change his first name and age So you may have an uphill struggle to find him I am afraid I find it hard to believe that someone under sentence would come back under his own name I doubt the police would have the resources or information to know one man from another unless it was a very serious crime When you say he was sentenced, why didn't he serve his time there and then? They would not have let him out for a while before serving a sentence, it would have been sentence and straight out the dock into the nick Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 07/12/2012 13:43, 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. > > 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'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? > > 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. > > Many thanks Janie >