The following announcement was written by the folks at: scottishindexes.com:

Discover the hidden lives of your ancestors

Scottish Indexes have reached a major milestone in their Scottish prison register indexing project. With the release of a further 180,000 prison register entries at the Scottish Indexes Conference on Saturday you can now search over half a million records from 38 Scottish prisons. Search Scotland's Criminal Database: https://www.scottishindexes.com/ScotlandsCriminalDatabase.aspx

These records are vital to exploring the stories behind our family history as well as overcoming brick walls to our research. Emma Maxwell, genealogist at Scottish Indexes, says “The census is a snapshot in time, but what happened to our ancestors on all the other days? Prison records can be a key to discovering more. For example, we may find a description of our ancestor’s tattoos or scars.”

Genealogist Graham Maxwell says “The key information given in a prison register to identify the inmate is now very useful for our research projects. While the census may give a place of birthplace of ‘Ireland’ or ‘ England’ a prison register may give us the specific county or parish. If our ancestor died before 1851 the birthplace and age could be the vital clues we need.”

Aliases and alternative surnames are given in the prison register. It could be that someone used a name to try to avoid the law but we also see multiple surnames recorded for other people. Married women usually have their maiden and married surnames included. Inmates who were illegitimate may be recorded under their biological father's name as well as their mother’s surname.

About Scottish Indexes: The indexes on scottishindexes.com are free to search and the website is managed by husband and wife team, Graham and Emma Maxwell. As well as criminal records you can search the Scottish Paternity Index, Mental Health Records, Court of Session Index and more.