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What you can find in Public Records
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The National Archives at Kew
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Amanda Bevan (nee Brass, History 1975-78) went on to Cambridge for her PhD and is now a Senior Archivist at the National Archives at Kew - a new name in the historical world, formed in April by bringing together the Historic Manuscripts Commission (HMC) and the Public Record Office (PRO). She writes about the work of the National Archives and how you can search these public records.
'When I look back to my first visit as a graduate student in 1979 to the old Victorian building that was then the PRO in Chancery Lane, the whole experience was one of entering a fascinating institution, run according to an arcane system that had to be deduced from the smallest amounts of evidence – with the fear that a question would be met with ridicule. I have to say that this was an unnecessary fear: the staff were as kind and friendly as anyone could hope, once I dared to ask them a question. It took me nearly six months of daily attendance to dare ask (there was a sign saying Silence over the enquiry desk and I took it literally).
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| The old reading room at Chancery Lane
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A library or an archive?
I joined the PRO staff in 1985. During my interview, I was asked if I knew the difference between a library and an archive. 'Yes', I replied (in rather a foolhardy way) - 'a library is arranged for the convenience of its users, and an archive isn't'. It raised a laugh and I still got the job - because the answer was, unfortunately for researchers, all too true. What really surprises me, looking back, is how radically the PRO has transformed itself, from what was really a late 19th century institution in 1985, to a very modern 21st century institution now, with an ever-expanding online presence and a real commitment to making archives available to everybody.
Tracing people
I remember the feeling of relief in 1985 at no longer having to concentrate on my thesis subject – it was a tangible joy to look up and see great vistas of historical experience, instead of my little area of common law judges, 1509-1547. Since then I've worked mainly in two disparate areas – cataloguing early modern documents, and writing/giving advice on how to use them. I've also written the nearest thing the PRO has to a general subject guide – published under the more obviously popular title Tracing Your Ancestors in the Public Records, now in its 6th edition. For the non-family historians among you there is nothing in the book that requires you to be tracing your ancestors, the sources described work just as well when looking for people not even remotely related to you.
If you are interested in historical research, you may want to visit the National Archives someday. We hold the archives of central government from the Domesday Book of 1086 onwards – in particular, the records of over-arching institutions, such as the Army or the Foreign Office, and of the internal government of England and Wales (the respective National Archives of Scotland and Ireland, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, and the National Library of Wales hold most of their purely national records of their time as part of the UK, and of their time as independent states). The PRO is also one of the world's major international archives, with vast holdings on the former British colonies, and on foreign relations over eight centuries.
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| The modern reading room at Kew
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Advising on research
You can check out our catalogue online at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk: if you choose the option Guided Search (once you are in the catalogue), you can find over 200 leaflets giving advice on all kinds of research topics, from First World War Service Records (top favourite at the moment) to the wonderfully-named Land Conveyances: Feet of Fines, 1182-1833. That one existed when I was a research student – but it was hidden in a drawer, and you had to somehow be aware of its' existence to ask for it!
Things have changed … but although we may operate so much online, with an increasing commitment to putting up digital images of documents, I still get filthy dirty cataloguing Trollopian disputes over how the trustees of a leper hospital should spend the[ir] money, given that leprosy was not a big problem in Victorian Exeter (although the various medical witnesses were in dispute about this). Looking at the soot on that one, I don't think anyone has looked at it since 1850. If you do ever come to use the records (and people who do come really enjoy it), don't wear anything you care about!' |
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