Reseaching at the Somerset Record Office

RESEARCHING AT THE SOMERSET RECORD OFFICE

Visiting the Record Office Opening hours Move to Somerset Heritage Centre, 2010 Directions Appointments Ticket system Searchrooms Facilities available Information leaflets	Records we hold Records we don't hold Research guides More information Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Visiting the Record Office Visiting the Record Office is free, although you will need to make an appointment. We are open Tuesday-Friday, plus some Saturday mornings. Staff are always on hand to provide assistance with your research. Each year we welcome over 8,000 visitors. Opening hours The Office is usually open all year, except public holidays. However, please note that in 2010 the service will be affected by our move to the new Somerset Heritage Centre - see below for details. Mondays: Closed Tuesday-Friday: 9.00 am-5.00 pm Saturdays (usually alternate): 9.15 am-12.15 pm, until Easter 2010 (see below). Please see our Saturday openings pages to find out the dates that we will be open: Saturday openings 2010. Move to Somerset Heritage Centre, 2010 During 2010 the archive service will be moving to new purpose-built premises. Subject to building work remaining on schedule the new Somerset Heritage Centre will opening in autumn 2010. To enable this move to happen there will be a phased closure to sections of the service. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Telephone, email and mail enquiries will continue to be answered throughout the move. Tuesday 5 January-Thursday 1 April – We will be open Tuesdays-Fridays, 9.00 am-5.00 pm, and on selected Saturday mornings. Tuesday 6 April - Closed for the day. Wednesday 7 April-Friday 2 July – Access to microfilm/fiche only Tuesdays-Fridays. It will not be possible to consult original documents until we reopen at the Somerset Heritage Centre. Monday 5 July-September – The Record Office will be closed to the public. Directions We are situated to the north of the main town in Taunton. For directions and maps, please see our directions page. For the address and a map of the Somerset Heritage Centre, please see the Somerset Heritage Centre section of the website. Appointments If you would like to look at microfiche (e.g. for family history research), you will need to make an appointment before you visit, as we have limited space and are very busy until Easter 2010. If you would like to look at original documents, there are no available spaces until we close for our move at Easter 2010, except for on Saturday mornings (when documents have to be pre-ordered by the Friday morning before the visit). However, if you phone us at the start of the day, we can let you know if we have had any cancellations, or if we could fit you in later that afternoon. To make an appointment, please phone 01823 337600 (+44 1823 337600 from outside the UK). Ticket system We accept the blue County Archives Research Network (CARN) tickets, and also issue our own. If you have not visited us before, please bring some form of ID containing your name, current address and signature (e.g. a driving licence, or utility bill plus bank card for signature). Please be aware that we do not accept passports or tickets from The National Archives. Searchrooms We have two searchrooms, one for microfiche and one for original documents. The microfiche room is called the Orchard Wyndham, or “OW” room, and has spaces for 23 readers. This room is mainly used by family history researchers, as the common family history sources – including parish registers and the census – are available on microfiche. The paper searchroom can accommodate 16 readers, and has a dedicated map table for consulting large documents. Up to 4 documents can be ordered in advance of your visit. Documents are issued all day, except between 1.00-2.00 pm and after 4.00 pm. Photography Users are welcome to bring in digital cameras to take photographs of documents, as long as they obtain a photography licence. The charges for the licences are: Daily licence: £2 Weekly licence: £8 Annual licence: £50 These are available from Reception. If you intend to publish images or to post them on the Internet, you will need to apply to the record office, using our permission to publish form (new window). Facilities available Free car park Free lockers for personal possessions Full disabled access Small refreshment area, with water, tea and coffee available Information leaflets Your first visit Using the Orchard Wyndham (Microfiche) Room Using the Document Searchroom Records we hold We hold records for the whole of the historic county of Somerset, including what is now Bath & North East Somerset and North Somerset. Our records span a huge variety of subjects, but some of the principal sources include: parish records for the Diocese of Bath & Wells (which forms nearly all of the county) and some non-conformist records local government records, for the Somerset County Council, North Somerset Council and present and past local councils census records for Somerset estate, manorial and family collections Quarter Sessions and court records maps photographs oral history recordings Records we don’t hold consultation copies of newspapers civil registration indexes of births, marriages and deaths published works - we have a small library, but the main collection is at the Somerset Studies Library. All of these sources can be consulted at the Somerset Studies Library in Taunton. Once we reopen as the Somerset Heritage Centre after our move this summer, we will have merged with the Somerset Studies Library. Research guides For more information on our main sources, please see our detailed research guides.