Where are archives held?
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Records of central government and courts of law are held at The National Archives (for England, Wales and the UK as a whole), the National Archives of Scotland , the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland , and The National Archives of Ireland
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County and local record offices collect records of local government, Quarter Sessions, churches, schools, businesses, families and people in their areas
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The British Library holds books and manuscript material of national importance
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The National Library of Wales does the same for Wales
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Some universities have archive or manuscript departments. In some cases, archives were often deposited there before local record offices were set up. Some universities hold rich local collections. Others have specialised in particular subject areas such as Trade Union archives
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Big museums such as the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum often hold manuscripts in their libraries, as well as artefacts
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Many businesses and organisations maintain their own archives
Hints for where to look
Archives relating to your research could be scattered across a number of these different archive offices.
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Personal letters received by a particular person may have been given by his descendents to the local record office
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Letters sent by him would have been kept by the recipients. Each of whom could have kept them, given them away, or destroyed them
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Records relating to his business concerns would have been kept with the archive of that business
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Records of his birth, marriage and death would be found either in the local record office (for church ceremonies) or can be ordered through Directgov (for civil registrations)
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Any organisations with which he was involved, e.g. schools, universities, clubs and societies, would have maintained their own archives
How to find information about archives held in the United Kingdom
The web pages of The National Archives (TNA) are a good first place to find out about archival sources in the United Kingdom. TNA hosts the National Register of Archives (see below), and the research guides available on its website give a great deal of useful information about archives held at TNA and elsewhere.
National Register of Archives The UK National Register of Archives (NRA) is the central point for information about the nature and location of archives relating to British history. It is maintained by the Historical Manuscripts Commission at The National Archives in Kew. The NRA contains information on the nature and location of manuscripts and historical records that relate to British history. It is probably the most comprehensive point of information about holdings of archives in the UK. Indexes of personal, family and corporate names, and also places in the can be searched online through the NRA website. Search results are linked to ARCHON, an up-to-date register of all UK archive repositories, which provides contact details and web addresses. The NRA is the quickest and easiest way to find out where relevant archive collections are held, but it does not provide detailed online catalogues.
Archives Hub The Hub contains collection level descriptions for archives held by many UK educational institutions, including The University of Nottingham. It does not describe individual documents but gives information about the scope and content of collections, and details about access to the original material.
Aim 25 Similar to the Archives Hub, Aim 25 provides collection level descriptions of the archives held by over fifty higher education institutions and learned societies within the greater London area. Again this is not a comprehensive coverage of all the holdings but is extensive and includes collections relating to subjects far beyond the London area.
Archives Wales allows easy searching of collections held by record offices, universities, museums and libraries in Wales
The Scottish Archive Network provides links to record offices in Scotland, and collection level descriptions of records held by 52 Scottish archive offices
Gateway to Archives of Scottish Higher Education . The GASHE project provides electronic access to descriptions of the archives produced by ten higher education institutions and their predecessors in Scotland, dating from 1215 to the present day
Database of Archives of Non-Governmental Organisations . This resource is based at The University of Birmingham.
Artists Papers Register. This website gives details about archives and manuscripts relating to fine art in the UK
How to find information about collections held abroad
There are a growing number of web sites providing varying levels of information about holdings in archives around the world. These can be useful for tracking down archives relating to British history which have been taken overseas, in particular to holdings in the United States where there are many historical and literary archives relating to the United Kingdom.
UNESCO Archives Portal
Provides to links to archives worldwide arranged by categories
Ready,'Net, Go
This service provides links to all the major indexes, lists, and databases of archival resources worldwide
Repositories of Primary Sources
This provides a listing of over 5000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar
National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)
This is a gateway, provided by the Library of Congress, to the OCLC Catalog of archival and manuscript collections in libraries, principally in North America but from all around the world
What archives are available online?
Digitised versions of archives are increasingly available, but coverage is patchy and it can be difficult to find out what is available.
Digital collections and archives provided online by JISC since 2003 can be browsed or searched in the JISC-Content website.
Intute (formerly, a variety of organisations such as the Humbul Humanities Hub) is a free online service providing access to quality internet resources for education and research, including archive digitisation projects. Each website is evaluated and described by subject specialists. Researchers are much more likely to find useful material by searching Intute than by doing a simple search using a search engine such as Google.
Many of the major archive repositories have online exhibitions, e-learning resources, and searchable banks of digitised material available through their websites. For example, the British Library's Images Online , and Online Gallery ; and The National Archives' Exhibitions pages.
Students and staff at the University of Nottingham can access a number of important research resources, free of charge, through the e-Library gateway . The resources include the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; The Times Digital archive, 1785-1985; British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries ; Early English Books Online, and Eighteenth-Century Collections Online; The Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945; 19th century House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (HCPP); The Parliamentary Rolls of Medieval England (PROME); and many more.
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