Local and Community History

May is Local and Community History Month so this seemed an appropriate time for a new research guide for anyone embarking on a local or community history project. Giving a definition of local and community history might seem a bit odd as it feels rather self-explanatory, but whether you are looking at the history of …

Finding Derbyshire Business archives

A guide to finding the archives of Derbyshire businesses. Derbyshire Record Office holds nearly 1000 collections for businesses and trades across the county and city of Derby, primarily for the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, although some date as early as the 16th century.  Amongst the largest of these collections are: D1851 Bryan Donkin and …

Researching LGBTQ+ history

The criminalization, stigmatisation and persecution of the LGBTQ+ community has made researching LGBTQ+ history a challenge. Throughout history people have for religious, social and personal reasons been forced to conceal this aspect of their lives. You'll often see it referred to as a ‘hidden history’. Knowing where to start researching this subject can seem a …

Baby Loss Awareness Week and records of stillbirth

This week (9-15 October) is Baby Loss Awareness Week.  Understandably, this is an incredibly emotive issue and one that many people don't think about if it is not something they have direct personal experience of. However, in the UK fourteen babies a day die before, during or soon after birth, so the chances are you …

The First World War

A guide to material held at Derbyshire Record Office about the First World War. Archives and local studies materials relating to the First World War have been well indexed in our online catalogue and this guide gives only a brief overview and selected highlights of what is available. To see everything we have identified for …

Searching for people in the catalogue

Our online catalogue contains nearly 400,000 entries relating to the archives and local studies collections we hold but it is not necessarily the easiest or most user-friendly site to search.  We're working on several improvements and in the meantime, here is a short guide to how to use the catalogue to find information about individuals …

Societies and Voluntary Bodies

A guide to the archives of charities and self-help societies such as associations for the prosecution of felons, friendly societies and nursing associations as well as societies with a social purpose. Charities Major series of charity records concern education, almshouses, or general and parish interests.  Educational charities are chiefly about the maintenance of a school …

Poor Relief and Workhouses

A guide to the records of the poor before and after the establishment of union workhouses. Parish Poor Relief An Act of Parliament in 1531 was really the first occasion where it was recognised that a formal system of aid was required for the poor, with an act of 1536 legislating for organised relief at …

Land Values Maps and Domesday Books

A guide to records of the district Valuation Offices after 1910. The Finance Act of 1910 legislated for a new duty on land and required a detailed survey of the whole country to determine the value of the land and the duty payable.   The Valuation Office was set up by the Inland Revenue in 1910 …

Coroners Inquests and other Records

A guide to the surviving records of the Derbyshire Coroners. It has been the duty of county coroners since 1194 to investigate the circumstances of unnatural, sudden, or suspicious deaths, and deaths in prison, with additional functions acquired over time. There are two coroners for Derbyshire: Derby and South Derbyshire, based in Derby High Peak, …