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Even by criminal standards, Albert Bradt, a 17th-century outlaw who lived in present-day New York, was a genuine scoundrel. Marking his lengthy rap sheet are charges for knifing a neighbour and burning down a house with his two sons inside.

There's also a lingering mystery surrounding the death of his first two wives.

While it's unlikely Mr. Bradt had many fans in life, he now has one in death: his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson.

"He was a pretty bad character all around," says Tyler Schulze, 27, a communications specialist for the Department of Defence who discovered his knavish ancestor after digging through online archives. "But I thought that was pretty cool."

Mr. Bradt defines the black sheep - that rogue in the family tree whose misdeeds used to go unspoken through subsequent generations.

But the pariah status of the black sheep is undergoing an image makeover. Last month, when an Alberta film crew announced plans to determine the identity of the notorious Mad Trapper of Rat River, a half-dozen families came forward claiming the legendary cop killer as kin after 75 years of silence.

Popular websites such as Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org have also recently placed professional genealogical databases in the hands of the average Web surfer. And these hordes of new amateur genealogists are using them to seek out notorious relatives.

"It can be boring just looking at plain family tree with names and dates," says Mr. Schulze, who was so enthused by his discovery that he launched Blacksheepancestors.com, a website with directions on how to track down a family felon. "The black sheep are a lot more interesting."

The masses concur. Mr. Schulze's site has notched 80,000 hits since its 2004 launch. Professional genealogists have even set up the International Black Sheep Society of Genealogists. Membership is exclusive to those who can trace a direct family line to a murderer, thief, gang member or host of other reprobates.

"We love finding out that a great-great-grandfather was a bigamist or something," says Megan Smolenyak, chief family historian for Ancestry.com. "It's unique. Those family secrets we used to hide we now celebrate."

Ms. Smolenyak, whose great-grandfather murdered her great-grandmother, was the genealogist who uncovered the family links between civil-rights leader Al Sharpton and segregationist politician Strom Thurmond. She also recently discovered that Wayne Gretzky's grandfather left behind a young wife in Belarus when he immigrated to the United States in 1912.

The shift in regard for ancestral black sheep reflects a larger transformation of genealogy from elderly hobby to popular pursuit.

"Genealogy used to be for blue bloods," says Rhonda McClure, genealogist and author of Finding Your Famous and Infamous Ancestors. "They didn't discuss black sheep. They didn't want to dishonour the old-money names."

Over the past year, more than two million people have created personal family trees using the Ancestry.com sites. Most don't hesitate to tout their miscreant credentials.

"With the Lindsay Lohans and Paris Hiltons doing their thing these days," Ms. McClure says, "it's the blacker, the better."

The changing nature of notoriety isn't the sole reason for the popularity of tracking down black sheep, though. Most ancestral records don't reveal much about individuals beyond birth, death and occupation. Criminals, on the other hand, leave colourful paper trails full of court, newspaper and jail records.

"The majority of us are from serfs and farmers and people who led good lives," says Leland Meitzler, managing editor of Everton's Genealogical Helper magazine. "But let's be honest: They're boring. The infamous material gives us a lot more insight."

Mr. Meitzler should know. Through various archives and databases, he has pieced together the checkered past of one of his grandmothers, which includes her banishment to a convent at age 12, running away at 15 and participating in a botched abortion.

"A young lady died in my granny's bed," Mr. Meitzler says. "She really bumbled her way through life. We're all human."

Ancestry.com's database of vital statistics and census records goes back to the 1600s. Just plug in your name and those of a few direct ascendants, and the site will find links between your family and the millions of people in its records. The names of some ancestors will inevitably vanish from records for a few years before popping up again.

"That's the best clue," Ms. McClure says. "Say, Great-uncle John disappears from the census - well, he could have been a ward of the state during those years."

Tracing out exactly where Great-uncle John went astray requires the more conventional genealogical approaches of sorting through archive index cards and old newspapers, many of which carried much more comprehensive court and police blotters in the 18th century than they do today.

"I would be really surprised if somebody couldn't find a single black sheep in their family," says Mr. Schulze, who estimates that one in 10 of his ancestors have left behind some evidence of involvement in unlawful activity - a few cow thieves and an axe-murder victim among them.

"I'm not embarrassed by it," Mr. Schulze says. "I mean, it's pretty crazy, but at least it makes for a good story to tell."