Historic records of criminal trials at London's Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey, have been published online in a project developed by a group of British universities.
Researchers have added further Old Bailey records online. Photo: Old Bailey from NW. Credit: nevilley/Wikipedia
Researchers at Sheffield, Hertfordshire and the Open University, collaborated to add extra records to the Proceedings of the Old Bailey of trials dating from 1674 to 1913.
Professor Robert Shoemaker, from the University of Sheffield, a co-director of the online project, said the release of the records gives access to anyone interested in reviewing any of the of 197,745 trials during the 239 years of coverage. This wealth of information had previously only been available to dedicated historians.
"Now everyone from schoolchildren and amateur historians to scholars working in a range of academic disciplines can have easy access to this wealth of information," he said in a statement.
Prof. Shoemaker said the site was a useful historical tool.
"The site´s use is widespread, with people as far away as Australia using it to trace their ancestry or find out a little more about British history. Without this invaluable resource these people wouldn´t have access to the innumerable fascinating snapshots of individual lives contained in these trial accounts."
Co-director Professor Clive Emsley, of The Open University, added: "Crime is something that fascinates everyone, and what the Old Bailey Proceedings does is provide people with the opportunity to see what crime was really like in the past."
"They can make comparisons and see close parallels to what´s happening today. For example, we think of terrorism as being new, but within the Old Bailey Proceedings, people will see terrorists who are attempting to do the same things 100 years ago," he said.
The project was launched in 2003 and has had 10 million visitors to the site since that time.
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