I was recently challenged with reviewing my family tree to identify any ‘naughty’ ancestors – what they did and the consequences of their actions. I knew that at least one of my Stirland ancestors had fallen foul of the law, so decided to focus on that line and searched for newspaper reports of any criminal cases. I found two likely offenders, Herbert Stirland and Joseph Stirland. Even though the surname is not all that common, it is often problematic to … Continue reading