Roger E Nixon, Military & Historical Searches
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PROFESSIONAL LONDON BASED INDEPENDENT
HISTORICAL RESEARCHER & RECORD SEARCHER


Genealogical Overview of The National Archives

Roger E Nixon, Military & Historical Searches Society of Genealogists Library at Charterhouse Buildings, London

There are many other repositories in London and it is very easy to confuse some with the others. The General Register Office (GRO) records of civil births, deaths and marriages from 1837 are not held primarily at the PRO but at the offices of the ONS - Office for National Statistics, the umbrella under which the GRO is now housed. This is centred at Southport in Lancashire but comprehensive registers are also held by the ONS on the ground floor of Myddleton House, Myddleton St. Islington in North London. Fiche copies can also be found at various other record centres in the Kingdom and are also accessible at the PRO.

Unlike the ground floor, the upper floor of Myddleton House is managed by TNA. This houses the various censuses which run from 1841 to 1891 and Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) wills up to 1858 (but not the Prerogative Court of York [PCY] wills which are housed at the Borthwick Institute at York). It also has an excellent computer section where researchers may consult the IGI, US Social Security Index and Ancestral files and other excellent related material sourced by the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS). The latest census released is that of 1901 which went on line in January 2002. The original census enumerations have been digitised and can be accessed via an electronic index.

The whole of Myddleton House is simply referred to as the Family Record Centre (FRC). It has become a very popular research location with upwards of some thousands of visitors a day at peak times. It is an excellent starting point for visits to other centres. A few paces away from Myddleton House is the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) which houses records of Metropolitan, or Greater, London. 10 minutes further on is the Society of Genealogists and its Library (SoG). Yet another 10 minutes away is the Guildhall Library which is home to the parish records of the City of London whilst the Corporation of London Record Office keeping the records of the City is just around the other side of the building in Basinghall Street.

The Principal Probate Registry at New Avenue House in High Holborn holds registers of wills and administrations from 1858 and is about a mile in the other direction. A short train or bus ride will also take researchers from the FRC to the British Library in Euston Road. This award winning building also houses the superb Oriental and India Office Collections which holds the records of British India. An exceptional library of oriental material can be found there.

Visit my Links Page for the addresses of these and other repositories.


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