Topic: Old Bailey online archive expanded

[Clive]

Details of every trial held at the Old Bailey between the years of 1674 and 1913 can now be accessed for free online.

Nearly 200,000 trials are detailed including those of Emmaline Pankhurst, Oscar Wilde and even Dr Crippen.

The site, which is a collaboration between the Universities of Sheffield, Hertfordshire and the Open University, previously only had details of trials from the years 1674 to 1834.

The records stop at 1913 because that was the date of closure of a periodical called The Proceedings, where the records are taken from.

There has also been an improvement to the search facility on the site, letting you search combining keywords with a category of crime - for example, you can now search through all murder trials containing the word 'pistol'.

"We have taken advantage of the opportunity to update many of the technical and historical features of the website and to introduce a new, improved overall design," a statement on the site reads.


www.oldbaileyonline.org.uk

[GillE]

The web page timed out when I tried to access it - perhaps it's too good to be able to cope with the load of new visitors .

I'll try later - it sounds fascinating.

Gill

[mistybear]

Good find Clive. 

Did take a long time to connect.

[Simon]

Clive's website kiss of death again!  "Can't connect to server."   

[Clive]

  Happens every time!   

[Rik]

Clive's website kiss of death again!  "Can't connect to server."   

It was working earlier, it looks like the server couldn't cope.

[Clive]

Huge interest in Old Bailey website

The recently expanded Old Bailey website has had to increase server capacity to deal with the huge volume of visitors.  The move to increase server capacity has been taken to prevent future crashes, such as the one which disabled the site on 29 April, just two days after it was relaunched.

Nearly two million people visited the site on its first day of relaunch. This figure was surpassed a week later with over three million visits. 

The website is run by the Universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire and The Open University and recently expanded to include details of criminal trials from 1674 to 1913, from just after the Great Fire of London to just before World War I.

Overseas interest is particularly high as visitors from Australia to the US trawl the site to gain an insight into information about their ancestors and a diverse range of crimes from pick-pocketing and robbery, to cattle rustling and murder.

Up until the site's launch in 2003, the archive information was only available to view via microfilm. Now visitors to the site can easily search trials by verdict, crime and punishment and even view original case transcripts, which have been digitally transferred to the website.

Professor David Shepherd, director of the Humanities Research Institute (HRI), said: "We knew that interest in the Old Bailey site would be high and we planned for this. However, we were overwhelmed by just how strong the demand from all over the world turned out to be."


www.oldbaileyonline.org

[mistybear]

Well, that explains it. 

[Clive]

And for once, it wasn't my fault!   

[Simon]

No, but we'll blame you anyway.   

[Rik]

I wonder how many of the overseas hits came from Australia?

[Clive]

  Like taking risks eh Rik?   

[Rik]

Only when wearing full body armour.

[mistybear]

I wonder how many of the overseas hits came from Australia?

I hadn't thought about looking to see if any of my ancestors were before the Old Bailey, but I will now. I think most aussies would be quite proud if they found that their ancestors came out as convicts.   

The only documents that I did come across when researching British records, a while back, were for placing of a pregnant sixteen year old in to care, and a married male relative being named as being the father of a teenagers baby.   Randy bunch!

My grandfathers Irish ancestors might be more interesting. 

[Rik]

Especially if you find a Kelly amongst them.