Records Office Guide

From the Family Tree Forum Reference Library

A Guide To Information Available In Your Local Records Office

County Records Offices

The biggest headache in locating record offices is boundary changes. Records that relate to your area often end up archived in their original shire county despite the introduction of unitary authorities and metropolitan boroughs and counties.

To view the set up of Counties Prior to the changes implemented in 1974, click here:

COUNTIES OF ENGLAND SCOTLAND AND WALES PRE 1974

Useful information for each county has been collected together. [Counties Page]

Bedfordshire Berkshire Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire
Cheshire Cornwall Cumberland Derbyshire
Devon Dorset Durham Essex
Gloucestershire Hampshire Herefordshire Hertfordshire
Huntingdonshire Isle of Wight Kent Lancashire
Leicestershire Lincolnshire LONDON (Middlesex) Norfolk
Northamptonshire Northumberland Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire
Rutland Shropshire Somerset Staffordshire
Suffolk Surrey Sussex Warwickshire
Westmoreland Wiltshire Worcestershire Yorkshire
Channel Islands and Crown Dependencies including the Isle of Man



Births Marriages and Deaths

Burial Records
Parish Records
Census Returns

Other Types of Records

Archive Collections
Architectural drawings and building plans
Coroner’s Records
Court Sessions and Victualler's Licences
Directories: Trade, Street and City
Electoral Registers and Poll Books
Emigration and Immigration
Hospital Records
Manorial, Land and Estate Deeds
Maps: Tithe and Ordnance Survey
Military Records
Newspapers and Journals
Photographs
Poor Law and Workhouse Records
Records of Merchant Seamen
School Records
Taxation Records
Wills and Probate