Bath & North East Somerset Council

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Research Service

What research can we carry out?

  1. Family history research - whilst we cannot compile an entire family tree for you, we will be able to search resources such as Ancestry, Find My Past and British Newspaper Archive.
  2. Building history research - including planning history, surviving architectural plans, summary of residents or short history of the use of the property.
  3. Intrepretation of title deeds or other similar historic documents.
  4. Other research subject to agreement with the Record Office staff.

Charges

£16 per hour inc. VAT, with a minimum charge of £16. 

Commercial requests for research will be charged £32 per hour inc. VAT.

Copies will be charged in addition to our research fee.

How to request research

Please e-mail us at [email protected]. Make sure that you:

  • tell us exactly the information you wish to find out.
  • include scans of documents you wish to be transcribed or interpreted.
  • include as much information as possible about individuals, locations, dates, and other relevant details.
  • mention any previous correspondence with us related to your current enquiry.

We shall provide a quote of the expected cost of the research on receipt of your request.

Payment can be made

  • By credit or debit card - we will send you instructions of how to pay via the Council website.
  • By cheque, made payable to Bath & North East Somerset Council and in sterling currency. We do not accept Eurocheques and cannot accept payments in a currency other than sterling.

Our commitment to you

  • Enquiries are dealt with as quickly as possible, but at busy times it may take up to 4 weeks for a full reply to be sent.

Your personal data

When you contact Bath Record Office: Archives and Local Studies by email, telephone or post to request research or make an enquiry, the Office collects and processes personal information such as name, contact details, and any information which you may give us, together with any information which we may give you in our response to your enquiry. We process this information in accordance with the terms of the General Data Protection Regulations (article 6.1e) and the Data protection Act 2018. Information you give us in enquiries and which we give you in our responses may occasionally include special categories of personal data. This is processed in accordance with article 9.2a of the General Data Processing Regulations.  Neither the personal information nor the special category information will be shared with any other body or individual without your specific consent or unless allowed by law. Research enquiries received by email or post are kept for 1 year. Data from all research enquiries is kept for up to 5 years on a secure database and then deleted. We do not retain any personal or special category information permanently.