Good news for researchers with Missouri black sheep!

Missouri now has arguably the best on-line information about prisoners, including PDFs of the log book including any identifying scars. Two other Midwestern states have transcriptions which may or may not be complete: Illinois and Indiana. (For Indiana, choose "Institution" from the drop-down menu "Record Series," then choose one of several correctional institutions from the drop-down menu "Collections." The resulting search form can be tailored for county and span of years. A null search will not work, so just go through the vowels to develop your own custom list for a given county and period.) Cyndi's List has numerous links but the actual pickings are slim.

So you definitely want your ancestral miscreants to have been caught in the Show-Me State. And while you're there, check out all the other good records Missouri is putting on line. If you state's prison records can better Missouri's, let us know in the comments.

Black Sheep Friday in Ohio and Indiana

Two places to stop by if your family has a black sheep:

At the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus you can peruse two cubic feet of "Copies of cost bills and indictments for individuals sentenced to the Ohio Penitentiary, 1834-1874," as well as a wide variety of other documents and secondary sources.

At the Indiana State Archives, something more personal and indexed, with pictures: "In the early 1900’s the Board of State Charities conducted interviews with inmates at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana. Each prisoner was given the opportunity to give his side of the story. The men often named family members and others involved in the crime for which they were sentenced, and discussed whether or not attempts had been made to secure a parole or pardon." The name index is on line; for the rest, get thee to Indianapolis.