Sometimes our most elusive ancestors cannot be found because they are hiding in quirky collections, like the 1879 Reports of the Inspectors and Warden of the Maine State Prison and of the Physician and Chaplain, Also the Report of the Commissioners.
This publication contains a list of prisoners, their age, crime, and where they were from. No surprise the majority of the prisoners were from Maine, but some came from other states, primarily in the northeast, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, England, and my favourite, On the Sea.
An alphabetical list of prisoners’ names has been created by Pam Beveridge on her blog, Heirlooms Reunited. If you find a familiar name, scroll down the blog post to find the page where his name appeared, his sentence, and date of discharge.
