| Genealogy often means digging about in the past, | | | | must be cautious when signing up to these places |
| and quite often when least expected, you may | | | | as some will often only give snippets of |
| unearth some information that even your | | | | information and make you pay a "slight fee" to |
| grandparents didn't know about. A free criminal | | | | get the remainder of the info. |
| background check is typically the first thing most | | | | Most county court records also hold the inmate |
| genealogical researchers do when they are unable | | | | information if the person was held over for trial, |
| to find a distant relative or neighbor of relatives. | | | | jailed in county on misdemeanor charges, or |
| A free background check or criminal search can | | | | waiting to be transferred to another correction |
| really substantiate why no one ever talks about | | | | department. If you know the county where your |
| some past relatives at Thanksgiving. | | | | relative was last heard from, it may be that they |
| Usually the researcher will hit a brick wall when | | | | were a prison inmate possibly doing time and |
| they come across a name in a family tree but | | | | those counties will have excellent records on file |
| cannot find any corresponding information to who | | | | when it comes to a search for people in their |
| that person was, what they did or where they | | | | jurisdiction. |
| lived. If this is the case in your family search its a | | | | Federal prisons are also a good place to research |
| good bet to try performing criminal background | | | | for past relatives. If you know the nature of their |
| checks on those people you cannot find | | | | crime and also where the trial had taken place |
| information for. | | | | you'll usually find that your criminal search will lead |
| Doing a criminal search is often free as the | | | | you to a correctional department, somewhere - |
| information is quite dated and typically only newer | | | | one of the oldest ones in the country being NYS |
| databases are high payments types. There are | | | | Corrections which handles all of New York and |
| free websites to do a person search but you | | | | often some of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. |