Record Offices & Archives

The United Kingdom is blessed with the number of record offices and archives that can be visited around the country. Some are at a county level, others are only concerned with their local area. Virtually all are free to access (although 'extras' like printouts will be charged) and are staffed by knowledgeable and helpful archivists. The following are a selection of the ones that are most likely to be of some interest to Reffell researchers.

• The National Archives - The premier archive at Kew. An increasing amount of the information there is being digitised and put online.
• General Register Office - For online ordering of the birth, marriage & death certificates for England & Wales. You will need the details found from the main GRO indexes - available online through Ancestry, FreeBMD etc.
• Scotland's People - The equivalent, and in some ways better, of accessing Scottish parish register and the birth, marriage & death certificates.
• London Metropolitan Archives - The record office for Greater London with the exception of the City of London. Local record offices like the LMA and those listed below will generally hold most of the surviving parish registers for the area that they cover. The actual holdings for individual parishes can again be ascertained by the use of The Phillimore Atlas & Index of Parish Registers (Cecil Humphery-Smith).
• London Guildhall Library - The record office for the City of London is quite a small centre, and is set within the lovely Guildhall complex itself. The items likely to be of most interest are in the Manuscripts Section. All the parish registers for the City churches are to be found here.
• City of Westminster Archives - The local archive centre for Marylebone and Paddington. There are similar local archives in each London borough. This one is tucked away just around the corner from Westminster Abbey. Extremely helpful and knowledgeable, many of the Westminster parish registers are to be found here rather than in the LMA.
• Surrey Family History Centre - Another very helpful record office in Woking. One of the latest building designs, great emphasis has been put into using as much natural daylight as possible.
• Suffolk Record Office - Another new building with very helpful staff in Ipswich.
• Probate Records - First Avenue House, near Chancery Lane Underground station. This is the repository for all wills given probate since 1858. Physical on-site copies of the National Probate Index (also on microfilm at the NA) can be consulted as an index for will searching. Copies can be ordered and are available usually within an hour.