Ref. 25612-77A RETIRED Swindon magistrate who spent the past 30 years upholding the law has discovered his ancestors were criminals.

Jim Scott, 71, traced his family history to 1750, when several of his relatives spent regular spells in prison for refusing to pay Church taxes.

But Mr Scott, of Upper Stratton, is far from ashamed by his rebellious relatives.

"They went to prison because they were Quakers and refused on principle to pay tithes to the Church," he said. "They used to go to prison every year, and over the years they became destitute. What little they had was taken from them.

"I think it's disgraceful. The Church of England has always been behind the times."

Mr Scott, having served as a magistrate in Swindon from 1971 until last year, admitted he had found the revelations about his ancestors "a little odd."

But the pensioner, who with his wife Doreen has run the Swindon branch of the Wiltshire Family History Society for two years, is still keen to find out more about his background.

And he is not alone. Up to 60 people attend the Society's fortnightly meetings in Gorse Hill Community Centre, and Mr Scott has seen public interest rise steadily.

"We're getting new members every week," he said. "It used to be mainly retired people, but now we're getting people in their 20s and 30s."

Marjorie Moore, an expert in family history who founded the Society's Swindon branch in the late 1970s, said funerals and history programmes on TV often inspired people to satisfy their curiosities about their origins.

The internet has also had a positive effect by making initial research much easier, although Mrs Moore stressed everything found online should be checked against hard copies.

"You are dealing with a cross between a detective story and a jigsaw," she said. "But those prepared to do some sensible research will have a pretty high success rate."

Mrs Moore, who is giving a talk to the Society on Thursday evening on the subject of criminal ancestry, said prison records were a useful resource for tracing relatives.

"The very good people don't feature so much in records but the naughty ones will have more written about them so more can be found out about their family background," she said. "You never know whether you are going to be descended from a Lord or a rogue.

"Even the late Queen Mother had Smiths in her ancestry."

Explaining the growing interest in tracing family history, Mrs Moore said: "People move around so much more for work these days.

"We have become a rootless society, and people want to discover where they come from."

How to trace your ancestors: a beginners' guide:

Gather your family documents.

Talk to all your relatives and find out as much as you can.

Enter all the information into a special computer programme.

Search the civil register for births, marriages and deaths available at Swindon library.

Try the family record centre in London, or nearby Mormon family history centres in Bristol and Cheltenham.

Check the national census, available on the internet.