Public records are held today on every aspect of our lives, and it wasn’t very different in the past. The Public Record Office (PRO) at Kew, in London, houses one of the most complete archives in the world, running unbroken from the Domesday Book in 1086.

Appendix 1 shows the online catalogue running into hundreds of source types and record topics, each with a printable information leaflet. Each of these topic headings is hypertexed to information that will help you to prepare for your research at the London office. The Family History Centre holds birth, marriage and death records, as well as censuses (which are not held at the PRO).

Most records are made available for public access 30 years after their final creation. So with the exception of census records which are not available for 100 years, there are no practical restrictions on access for most family history purposes. At one level they open a window onto contemporary social, economic, political and religious history for a millennium, whilst at another level they touch the individual lives of millions of ancestors, including yours and mine.

Purposes And Processes

The records were not produced for family historians. They relate only to times when people came into contact with the government or judicial system, such as when they were registered as born, married or dead, joined the armed services, sold land, were due to pay tax, were criminals and so forth. So it is not easy to find information on a particular person or family unless you know what would have necessitated a record, and the way the records were created or processed.

Very few of the records have alphabetical indices by name. Hence the usual start with indexed records of births, deaths and marriages, and the need for as much information as possible from within your family. However, the fact that it is well hidden doesn’t mean that information about your ancestors doesn’t exist. It means, rather, that you will need knowledge and detective skills to track it down.

It is unlikely that anyone but you or someone in your extended family will make such a serious search for ancestors, so this is an opportunity to bring to life personal history that might otherwise have been lost to the world forever.

Whilst everything is expertly catalogued, there is no ‘subject’ index as such at the PRO, and he records are generally in the categories relating to their multitude of original purposes. To make even reasonable use of the wealth of information available, it is therefore necessary to learn something about the nature and purpose of the various kinds of records. For example, who was responsible for what sort of affairs? Who is likely to have written to whom? What kind of information had to be kept for posterity? and so on.

With over 500 km of records on the shelves, there is no practical limit to the depth to which you can investigate your ancestors, and the extent of the learning process. At minimum, this obligatory background knowledge provides an ideal introduction to the history and culture of the periods in question, and putting your ancestors into a context, enabling you to know them better.

Whilst most family researchers get by with the minimum of such knowledge, for many this is the main pleasure and challenge of family research. From these disparate records you will understand something of the kind of life your ancestor lived, the domestic, social, economic, industrial and political conditions of the time. Likewise you will see your relations within a backdrop of wars, legislation, religious movements, disasters and so on.

This rich history, including sometimes extraordinary detail of the lives of your own kin – such as in a will or military service record – lies hidden in the records. You don’t have to decide up front the extent to which you will dig into all the available records - you will probably first want to gauge the sort of time, committment and expense it will mean.

Be prepared to do some real detective work and background learning, however, if you want to bring your ancestors to life and get maximum pleasure as a hobby or worthwhile project. Otherwise your research may amount to little more than geneological trainspotting.