Alcatraz Island , the infamous federal prison off the coast of California , was originally sold to the United States in 1849 by the Spanish. An US Army detachment was stationed there in 1859 and in 1868 military criminals began to be housed there. It was finally transformed into a high security federal penitentiary and it was On This Day in 1934 that Alcatraz Island became home to federal prisoners who were deemed to be notorious and dangerous. For 29 years this prison housed the likes of Al Capone (at left here in this Public Domain photo from Wikipedia) and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. Did YOUR ancestor spend time at Alcatraz ? Ancestry.com offers the database: Alcatraz , California , U.S. Penitentiary, Prisoner Index, 1934-1963. You can search the index and, if you happen upon a black sheep in your family there, you can request the relevant case file from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Pacific Regional Office. A quick che...
by Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman