Bath & North East Somerset Council

Explore Bath's world heritage

Bath’s Heritage Other things to do in Bath Bath & North East Somerset Council

Bath Record Office is currently closed but we are planning a safe reopening. Although we are closed for research appointments, we are able to respond to enquiries by email, phone or post.

Research Service

Do you have more time on your hands now that more of us are staying at home?

Interested in getting started with your family history?

Or perhaps you have documents at home which you need help with reading or interpreting? Our expert staff can carry out research for you at a very reasonable rate.

Charges

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

We currently cannot supply copies of documents unless they are already digitised.

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 and send you copies of documents from these websites.
  2. Transcriptions of letters or diaries.
  3. Intrepretation of title deeds or other similar historic documents.

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 a month 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.

We look forward to hearing from you