Essex Archives Online

SEARCH ESSEX ARCHIVES ONLINE

Essex Archives Online is our digital catalogue. It provides descriptions of every item in the archive, though not the full text of the documents themselves. It also contains over 780,000 digital images of the items that we care for alongside audio and video recordings from the Essex Sound and Video Archive.

You can search Essex Archives Online from home, free of charge. You can also access some of the images and the sound and video recordings for free, though you will need to register and log into Essex Archives Online in order to access them.

You can access all the digital images held on Essex Archives Online in our Searchroom in Chelmsford. You can also access them at our Archive Access Points in Saffron Walden Library, Harlow Museum and Southend Library at The Forum in Southend-on-Sea. Opening hours for both the ERO and our Access Points vary, so please check before you visit.

This includes access to:

• 590,000 images of Church of England parish registers from Essex and north-east London.  To find out what registers we hold from each parish, and to identify images available online to subscribers, visit our Parish Registers page.  
• 175,000 images of original wills from Essex and eastern Hertfordshire, dating between 1400 and 1858.  These can be found by searching the catalogue for the word will and a name, occupation or place-name.
• 21,000 images of electoral registers for 1833-1883 (an incomplete set), plus 1918 and 1929.  To find these search the catalogue for Images (under 'Refine your search') using the search term electoral register.  Please note that these images are not indexed by name. 
• 750 images of Essex Industrial School admission registers, 1872-1914.  To find these search the catalogue for Document Reference D/Q 40.  Again, please note that these images are not indexed by name.  

To view the above images from home, you will need to register and buy a subscription. Subscriptions are available for various periods between 1 day and 1 year. For current prices and to register, please visit the subscription service page on Essex Archives Online.

To access original documents in our Searchroom, you will need an Archives Card. To find out more, go to our Visit the Searchroom page.

SEARCH ESSEX ARCHIVES ONLINE