AT THE RECORD OFFICE

Record offices usually ask you to sign a signing-in book on each visit. This is to acknowledge you have read the rules (which are there to protect the documents) and will abide by them. If you have a CARN ticket you will need to sign in with your name and ticket number.

There are some rules that all search rooms have in common. These are to protect the documents and also make sure that you take account of other users’ needs. They include:

• No smoking
• No eating or drinking, including sweets or gum (debris and liquids can damage documents)
• Use pencils only (this is because ink, ballpoints and gel pens are not erasable and can damage documents; it’s also best to avoid using pencil sharpeners and erasers because the debris can damage documents)
• Leave all bags, coats, umbrellas, folders, laptop cases, plastic bags and briefcases in lockers (the lockers often have coin-operated locks; check beforehand what you’ll need so you have the right change to use the lockers)
• Switch off all mobile phones or put them on silent operation (and don’t use them in the area)
• Silence in the room (so you don’t disturb other researchers).

Things you will be allowed to take into the search rooms include:

• Laptop computers (but not the laptop case)
• Notebooks and loose papers
• Pencils
• Glasses
• Money (e.g. for photocopying fees).

Some record offices give you a transparent plastic bag to hold your personal items while you are in the search room.

Once you have signed in and sorted out a reader card, if you’re not sure where to get started, one of the record office staff will show you how to use the index and catalogues, as well as where microfiches and films are kept and how to order documents.

Records that are used a lot (such as census returns), scattered throughout a wide geographic area (such as parish registers) or very fragile (such as back copies of newspapers) tend to be available in microfilm or microfiche format. Record office staff can show you how to use a microfilm reader and microfiche reader; until you get used to it, it can be tricky to load a film (particularly if a previous researcher didn’t rewind it properly – in that case the entire film may be back to front), so do ask if you get stuck. The staff won’t laugh at you or think you are a nuisance.

What kind of documents do record offices hold?

Record offices often have an online catalogue, either accessible on their own website (see appendix 5, page 199) or through Access to Archives (A2A, see www.a2a.org.uk). The kind of records you can expect to find include:

• Parish registers – births, marriages, deaths
• Census returns and census enumerator books
• Wills and probate records
• Churchyard surveys, cemetery registers and grave books
• Electoral registers
• Taxation and rating records – land tax, duty on land values, rate assessments, hearth tax assessments, window tax assessments
• Records of the poor – Guardians of the Poor court books, poor rate books and assessments
• Title deeds and manorial records
• Maps – Ordnance Survey, tithe maps, enclosure maps, private estate maps, road order maps and deposited plans
• Sales particulars
• Street directories
• Building control plans
• Photographs
• Ecclesiastical records – bishop’s registers, visitation records, consistory court records, faculties, consecration records, glebe terriers, parish records (benefice papers, vestry minutes, churchwardens’ accounts)
• Administration records – court rolls, assembly rolls and minute books, freemen’s rolls and admissions books, apprenticeship registers and indentures, mayoral court books
• Legal records – quarter sessions minute books and files, coroners’ inquests, registers of conviction, gaol chapel books, nominal registers, bridewell registers, charge books and minute books, calendars of prisoners (assizes, quarter sessions), cell books from town lockups, index of prisoners sentenced to transportation
• Hospital records – accounts, title deeds, admission registers
• Local newspapers
• Estate papers and personal papers
• Antiquarian notes

PRACTICAL TIPS ON WORKING WITH DOCUMENTS

Some of these are terribly obvious, but can easily be forgotten in the excitement of a search.

• Make sure your hands are clean and dry
• Handle the documents as little as possible (the grease from your hands can cause damage) and try not to touch written text
• Don’t use a pencil to point out or follow entries, or put any other mark on the documents – use a piece of white acid-free paper instead under the line of text to help you keep your place (the record office will have these on request)
• Use pencils only for making notes. Avoid using a rubber or pencil sharpener among original documents – the debris can mark the documents and make them illegible for other users so use a propelling pencil or have a supply of ready-sharpened pencils before you go
• Put bound volumes on stands, wedges or cushions to support their spines, not flat on the table, and turn the pages carefully
• Make sure the whole document is on the table and nothing hangs over the edge (otherwise it’s easy to damage documents)
• Don’t rest anything (including your hand, notebooks, papers or magnifying glasses) on the documents – if your document is in a roll or outsize, the record office staff will give you special weights to use (they are either circular or sausage-shaped, with soft leather covers that won’t mark or damage the documents)
• If you request a bundle of documents, make sure you return them in the same order as you found them and don’t mix them up with other document bundles
• Take the documents back as soon as you have finished with them
• Make a note of the references you used before you start making notes – it will save you going over the same ground in a few months’ time when you’ve forgotten that you looked at this particular document or bundle. If your search wasn’t successful, make a note of what you looked for and that you failed to find it
• Return documents promptly
• When you have finished using the the microfilm, wind it back onto the spool it was on originally and return it to the correct storage slot. You should also have a ‘marker’ (usually a coloured plastic box) to put in place of the box for that spool. The marker box has a label to show which film reading machine is using that film (e.g. if someone else wants to use it after you). It also helps you find the correct place more easily when you return the spool
• When you have finished using the microfiche, put it back in the correct storage slot. When you take a fiche out, you should mark the place with one of the special markers stored next to your machine (as above, it will help other researchers know that that fiche is being used by someone else and will also help you return the fiche to the correct place)
• Check with record office staff if you wish to trace something. If possible, place a clear plastic sheet between the tracing paper and the document to save wear and tear on the document.

Making copies

There are some restrictions on copying documents in a record office. Some documents can’t be copied because:

• Copying will break the law of copyright (particularly with maps and illustrations)
• Copying could damage the binding of a book
• The document is too fragile or delicate to be copied.

It is often possible to have printouts from microfilm or microfiche (for a fee), and you may be able to arrange photographic copies of more delicate material (again, for a fee). Flash photography isn’t usually allowed, and neither is the use of hand-held scanners.

Avoiding the pitfalls

Dating

A year isn’t always a year! Until 1752, the English calendar followed Church convention and the first day of the year was Lady Day (25 March). So, to convert dates between 1 January and 24 March to modern dates, add a year onto the year given in a parish register. For example, 1 February 1710 in a parish register is 1 February 1711 in a modern calendar. Historians note this date as 1 February 1710/11.

In 1752, the country switched from the ‘old style’ Julian calendar to the ‘new style’ Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar (adopted by Julius Caesar) included every fourth year as a leap year. In 1582 Pope Gregory reformed the calendar so that it followed the solar year (with every fourth year except a centennial being a leap year) and cut 10 days from the calendar to adjust it. This calendar was known as the Gregorian calendar and was adopted by the Catholic countries in Europe. As England was a Protestant country, it kept to the Julian calendar rather than using the Gregorian calendar so, by 1752, dates in England were 11 days in front of the rest of Europe (and Scotland). Under the Calendar Act of 1752, England switched to the Gregorian calendar but had to lose the extra 11 days – so Wednesday 2 September 1752 was followed by Thursday 14 September 1752. The authorities were worried about losing 11 days’ taxation, so those 11 ‘lost’ days were added to the end of the financial year – hence the taxation year ends on 5 April (11 days after Lady Day). The financial year was moved back to 31 April in 1854 but the taxation year continues to run from 6 April to 5 April.

Some dates also refer to dates around Easter, such as the 10th day after Easter. As Easter is a moveable feast, you will need to check the actual date in a list of tables (such as those by Cheney – see the list of useful books in Appendix 3 on page 175).

In some records, the year is recorded by regnal year. So something dated 3 George II would occur in the third regnal year of George II, i.e. in the period 1 August 1716 to 31 July 1717. (See Appendix 4 for a list of regnal years.)

In Quaker records, the months are recorded by number rather than name: either ‘3rd mo.’ or ‘III’, for example. This can cause some confusion – before 1752 the first month was March, and after 1752 the first month was January, so follow the convention of using double years as above. Also note that the American usage of putting the month before the day (in numerical terms) is sometimes followed by Quakers.

Numbers

Before about 1640, most parish registers were written using Roman numerals or Latin words for dates. Where numbers are concerned, the last ‘i’ in a register may be shown as a ‘j’.

Number	Latin figure	Latin number	Latin date	English date
1	i or j	unus	primo	1st
2	ii or ij	duo	secondo	2nd
3	iii or iij	tres	tertio	3rd
4	iv or iiij	quattuor	quarto	4th
5	v	quinque	quinto	5th
6	vi or vj	sex	sexto	6th
7	vii orvij	septem	septimo	7th
8	viii or viij	octo	octavo	8th
9	ix or viiii or viiij	novem	nono	9th
10	x	decem	decimo	10th
11	xi or xj	undecim	undecimo	11th
12	xii or xij	duodecim	duodecimo	12th
13	xiii or xiij	tredecim	decimo tertio	13th
14	xiv	quattuordecim	decimo quarto	14th
15	xv	quindecim	decimo quinto	15th
16	xvi or xvj	sedecim	deicmo sexto	16th
17	xvii or xvij	septendecim	deicmo septimo	17th
18	xviii or xviij	octodecim or dudeviginti	deicmo octo or duodevicesimo	18th
19	xix	undeviginti	deicmo nono orundevicesimo	19th
20	xx	viginti	vicesimo	20th
21	xxi or xxj		vicesimo primo	21st
30	xxx	triginta	tricesimo	30th
40	xl	quadriginta
50	I or L
60	Ix
70	Ixx
80	Ixxx
90	xc
100	c or C	centum
200	cc
500	d or D
1	m or M

So 1635 in Latin numbers is MDCXXXV.

Also note that if a date was written 7ber, it meant the 7th month, which before 1752 was September.

Latin days and months

Days of the week:

Monday	dies lune
Tuesday	dies martis
Wednesday	dies mercurii or dies wodenis
Thursday	diesjove or dies iovis
Friday	dies veneris
Saturday	dies saturno or dies sabbatina
Sunday	dies sole or dies domini

Months of the year:

January	Januarius	July	Quintillis
February	Februarius	August	Sextilis
March	Martius	September	September
April	Aprilis	October	October
May	Maius	November	November
June	Junius	December	December

Handwriting

The older a document is, the harder it can be to read. This is partly due to changes in letter formation, but also because earlier ages tend to use abbreviations that might not be familiar to the modern reader. Record office staff may be able to help you decipher the odd word, but won’t have time to work with you on an entire document. If you are using a wide timespan, it is best to start with the later documents and work backwards – you will find it easier to see how the letters and abbreviations change.

It is also worth making yourself an ‘alphabet’ – look at words you know (such as names or some of the commonly used Latin words), pick out the letter formation of those letters, and list them alphabetically. This will help you work out unfamiliar words.

When transcribing from an original document, only write what’s there – don’t modernise the spelling. (Spelling wasn’t standardised until the 18th century; you may also find names transcribed wrongly, misheard and even spelled according to dialect.) If you write out an abbreviated word in full, put square brackets round the letters you have added so you have a clear record of what is there. There are common abbreviations – C. T. Martin’s The Record Interpreter is a superbly helpful resource here, as it gives Latin and French abbreviations, explains the conventions of abbreviations, gives a glossary of Latin words, and gives Latin versions of place names, first names and surnames.

Money

Figures can seem a bit meaningless because of inflation – see www.ex.ac.uk/%7ERDavies/arian/current/howmuch.html to find out how much something was worth in today’s money. Be aware that it does depend on what you are looking at, and the value of property doesn’t change in the same way as those of wages or bread. Lionel Munby’s How Much Is That Worth? is a good starting place for working out values.

Money before 1971

1 guinea = 21 shillings

£1 (1) = 20 shillings (s) or 240 pence (d)

1 crown = 5 shillings

½ crown = 2 shillings and 6d (sometimes written as 2/6)

1 florin = 2 shillings

1 shilling = 12 pence

1 penny = 4 farthings

In medieval times, you may come across other monetary references:

1 groat = 4 pennies

1 mark =13 shillings and 4 pence (NB there was no actual coin called a ‘mark’)

Interpreting documents

• Keep it in the context of contemporary events. For example, you may think a parish has a significant number of deaths. If that happens to be a plague year (or a period of another epidemic, such as cholera or smallpox) in the area, that will explain it. Or if you are looking at a map, look at it from the point of view of people at the time the map was drawn – what we might think of as a steep, impassable route might still have been a route (albeit a difficult one) years ago
• Keep it in the context of the document. It is easy to extract small quotations to back up an argument, but if those quotations are taken out of context they might not mean what the original author intended, so look at the whole of the document if possible
• Ask yourself who created the document and why. For example, tithe maps were created by Tithe Commissioners and the purpose was to show cultivated land (on which a tithe was payable) and non-titheable land (such as roads and highways)
• Ask yourself when it was created. For example, a map created in 1910 might not be an accurate representation of the same area in 1840 or even 1940, let alone today. Or a sketch of a house in 1850 might look very different from the same house 50 years later after the house had been extended or the frontage changed
• Ask yourself how it was created – what had to be done? For example, in compiling census information the enumerator had to visit every property in the district and note down the information required by law. Did that leave room for error? Yes, because the literacy of the householders varied – some didn’t know how to spell names (and neither did some of the enumerators), some weren’t aware of ages or places of birth of visitors, and some people deliberately lied about the ages of their children because, for example, a 15-year-old would earn more money than a 12-year-old. Socially, too, there may have been reasons for not telling the truth – an illegitimate child may have been claimed as the grandparents’ youngest child rather than as a grandchild. Could errors be put right? What was the process of correcting errors?
• Ask yourself who used the document and why. For example, window tax assessments were used by government officials to collect taxes. Indentures were used by masters to set out the terms of an apprenticeship, but were also used by the government for taxation purposes. Did anyone have any vested interest in not telling the truth and if so, why? (For example, if you didn’t register the birth of a child within 42 days in England and Wales, a fine was payable, so it is likely that some records are not accurate in order to avoid the fine.) Were there any consequences if the records were found to be falsified and if so, what?