How do I find out if dad was in jail?

[ChittyBangabang]

My dad died in the 80s. No other family members alive and no one to ask

But I have a feeling he may have been in prison when I was a child in the 70s.

He 'went away' for a while to live with relatives apparently but that never rang true. He was a dodgy sort and always up to something and more and more I think he could've been in prison.

Is there anyway I could find this out for sure?

Anyone any advice?

Probably only from newspaper archives, if it wasn’t reported I doubt you’d ever get access to prison records.

Why after so long you want to find out?

We lived in a small town so doubt it we be in a newspaper.

I suspect it would either be small time persistent petty theft or possibly alcohol related driving offences. He was banned from driving but I think kept driving for work.

Our local small town has a newspaper that has a court section that reports that weeks appearances and who was fined or jailed etc.

I'm curious to make sense of that time. I can remember conversations and coming and going's and I'd just like to know what the truth was.

You need to look at the census. If a person is in a prison, orphanage, the old workhouses, they will be listed in the census. They are every 10 years.

Oh. I wonder if I could search the local newspaper archives online?

I live far away from that area now.

Will that they were ever in prison listed? It was about six months I think

@caringcarer the census only gets published 100 years after it happens so will be a long wait to see what happened in the 1970's!

Census isn't published for 100 years. Not a solution for OP.

It's in Scotland if that makes a difference

Have you tried googling his name and location?

Ask local people, eg old teachers, neighbours, friends parents?

You can try the national records office
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/research-guides/research-guides-a-z/court-and-legal-records

If he was sent to prison the outcome of the court case will have been officially recorded. I don’t know how long these records are kept and what the rules around accessing them are.

Name changed for this because very few people know. I knew about some of my dad's activities and mum will never speak about things so I have some understanding of this. His family only ever say that he'd been silly. Lots of secrets and people reluctant to talk so I started to do my own research. I started with local newspapers through the archives. It allowed me to do free searches using his name, age and location. From the free searches I managed to work out which headlines and articles related to him. You can then pay to access the full articles. They do a pay as you go option which gives about 40 pages for £20. I needed more🙄Be prepared for a few shocks. I found far more offences than I was expecting and some were more serious than I realised. I don't know if your dad is a one off serious offender or more like mine, a career criminal. On balance I'm glad it wasn't rape or murder he was involved with because I think I'd find those harder to deal with. Good luck.
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/?&ds_kid=43700072666326870&msclkid=75289f832d191fc6e1d2fbfd784ef437&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Generics%20-%20Remarketing&utm_term=newspaper%20archive%20uk&utm_content=Newspaper%20Archive%20UK%20EXACT&gclid=75289f832d191fc6e1d2fbfd784ef437&gclsrc=3p.ds

Thank you @Dadwasinstrangeways

I know what you mean. I probably am better letting sleeping dogs lie, but I just want to know

I'm glad I did it because it helped me to put a lot of my childhood into context, clarified other things and, without wanting to sound cheesy, allowed some sort of closure to the unanswered questions going round my head.