If you are unable to visit the Record Office in person, we can search records for you. For a fee, payable in advance, we can search parish registers, census returns and any other documents or printed sources held by the Record Office.

Using the Essex Record Office search service

You can instruct the record searcher to look for particular information, for example a name or a family. Our record searcher can also provide a full transcription (word by word) or an abstract of a document written in English. An abstract contains all the essential information in a document and is therefore as useful as a full transcript, but often quicker to produce. We are unable to offer this service for documents in Latin, but can provide a list of independent researchers which includes people who can search Latin documents.

Requests for searches must be made on the official search form  and accompanied by the minimum fee. The results of a search will only be sent when the full payment has been received.

Before asking for a search you are strongly advised to check Seax to be certain that the Record Office holds the records you need. If the documents are not deposited here then the search service cannot search them.

You may contact the Search Service by e mail.

Census returns

Copies of census returns, where the full reference is not known, may be supplied for a fee which includes a 20-minute search and copies of up to three extracts.

Electoral and vehicle licence registers
Searches can also be made for a single entry in an electoral register or vehicle licence register at the cost of half an hour’s search.

Remember!

• there is no guarantee that a search will find any information useful to your research, so sometimes the results can be disappointingly negative.
• that documents can be exceptionally difficult to read; if this is the case we will give 
  you the best reading, while indicating any uncertainty.

Waiting time

Searches are carried out in the order in which they are received. We receive a number of requests for searches and aim to complete each search within four to six weeks. Sometimes, owing to exceptional demand, this can be longer. If we are aware of further delays we will notify you.

Alternatives

A list of independent record searchers known to work in Essex can be provided if you do not wish to use the Essex Record Office search service.