More than 100,000 Victorian prisoner records from Ayr and Inveraray jails are now available to search.

Prison registers are a rich source for family historians. Physical descriptions, literacy and health details bring ancestors to life in ways few other records can. Finding an ancestor behind bars can be a shock but it can also explain a great deal.

Forgotten true crime stories like the so-called 'Highland Hotel Robbers' are remembered in these records.

In the summer of 1883, American James Edward Lyon and his young accomplice Eliza Thorpe travelled together posing as husband and wife. They helped themselves to the cash and jewellery of well-heeled hotel guests from Argyll to Aberdeenshire.

This latest update includes 98,000 entries from Ayr Prison spanning 1841 to 1911. Among them three murderers sentenced to death but all spared.

Explore these cases and the history of each prison in articles from our archivists. Let them transport you back in time to find out what justice looked like in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The new additions mean there are now over 400,000 historical prison records available. This includes the old Edinburgh prisons, Barlinnie, Perth and Largs.

Want to get the most from your search? Take a look at our prison registers guide.

And if you're new to Scotland's People, our getting started page will point you in the right direction.