Free Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy by Nick Barratt

locally important families, who historically would have owned much of the land within the county and therefore played an important part in your ancestors’ lives. Their estate records, rent books, employment accounts, correspondence and records as local justices of the peace will contain thousands of names, many of which may be relevant to you and your search. However, it’s worth remembering that especially wealthy families owned land in more than one county – so if you can’t find what you are looking for in one CRO, it might be worth checking to see if important family papers for principal landowners are deposited elsewhere, possibly in another county where they had their main residence.
    If your ancestors lived on the border of a county you should investigate whether the county borders have changed at any time. For example, Bredon’s Hardwick, now in Gloucestershire, was for many centuries described as being in Worcestershire. As a result, some records for people who have lived in Bredon’s Hardwick are located in Worcestershire Record Office, while other records are held in the Gloucestershire Archives. Equally, if your ancestors lived on the border of one or more counties they may have moved around and spent time living on both sides of the boundary at various times, in which case there is probably material about them to be found in the record offices for both those counties.
Municipal Archives
    It is also worth considering the collections of major cities, which are often stored in their own municipal record offices or archives. Many places have more than one institution for you to visit. For example, London is served by the London Metropolitan Archives, the Corporation of London Record Office and the Guildhall Library, each of which holds important historical and genealogical information.
National Archives
    Each country in the British Isles has its own national archive where documents concerning central government are deposited. These are:
    â€¢ The National Archives (TNA) based in Kew in West London, covering England, Wales and the UK
    â€¢ The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) at Edinburgh
    â€¢ The National Archives of Ireland, based in Dublin
    â€¢ The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast
    There are also major collections relating to Wales at the National Library of Wales (NLW). Descriptions of each institution are provided in Section Five.
    The holdings of each of these archives are not strictly determinedby geography. If your ancestors lived outside England then you may still need to visit The National Archives at Kew as well as the particular country’s national archive, as the centralization of administrative records to London has affected all of the countries at some point in time. A change in the location of government does not always mean historic archives have moved to that new location. Each country also has a central General Register Office from which family historians order duplicate copies of birth, marriage and death certificates (see Section Two). The advice provided in Section Three relating to specific topics of family history will explain when you will need to visit each of the national archives, and what records you should use when you arrive.
Specialist Genealogical Libraries
    There are other centralized archives that hold some documents that are not accessible at the above-mentioned national and regional archives, as well as duplicate copies of those that are. The Society of Genealogists based in central London has copies of many parish registers from county record offices around the UK, as well as indexes to records held in other archives, documents relating to people around the British Empire, and much more.
Libraries
    It is also worth visiting your local library as well as an archive. Not only will many libraries play host to your nearest local studies centre, many have now opened specialist family history services, given the