Book description
Crime and Punishment in Upper Canada provides genealogists
and social historians with context and tools to understand the
criminal justice system and locate sources on criminal activity and
its consequences for the Upper Canada period (17911841) of Ontarios history.
Illustrative examples further aid researchers in this era of the
provinces past, which is notoriously difficult to investigate due to
paucity of records and indexes. An entertaining, educational read, the
book features chapters with detailed inventories of available records
in federal, provincial, and local repositories; published transcripts
and indexes; online transcripts and indices; and suggestions for
additional reading.
Also included are engravings (jails and courthouses, public
hangings, judges), maps (showing the boundaries of districts), charts
(for statistics such as frequencies of different kinds of offences),
and document examples (court minutes, jail registers, newspaper
reports, et cetera), while case studies demonstrate the use and
relevance of various records.
Janice Nickerson is a professional genealogist who specializes in
Upper Canadian history and turning bare-bones genealogies into
full-fledged family histories. She provided behind-the-scenes research
for the CBC Television program
Who Do You Think You Are?
and is a regular contributor to
Family Chronicle
,
Internet Genealogy
, and
Your Family Tree
magazines. She lives in Toronto.
