Everyone can enjoy using the records we hold at the County Record Office. This page offers some ideas about how the records can be used.

The records can be used in various ways, for example:

• You may want to research your family history which might include searching parish registers for baptisms, marriages and burials;
• You can use maps as well as deeds and other documents to research the history of your area;
• Many documents at the County Record Office can give you inspiration for writing short stories, plays and poetry;
• The records could be useful for school, college or university projects; and
• Photographs can show you how life was lived in the past

Some past projects using our records have been:

• A project used archive sources to inspire scenery and costume for a school drama production; and
• Photographs from a nineteenth century police charge book and information about the prisoners were used in a creative writing project.

Educational visits

Educational visits are welcome at the County Record Office. These can be tailored to the needs of the group and can include time in the conservator's studio to look at how documents are taken care of and preserved.

Further details on using the County Record Office

For more details on the County Record Office, including opening hours, conditions of use and guidelines for using the searchroom and handling documents, see the Records and archives - access page.

The County Record Office catalogue

Our catalogue contains documents from a wide range of sources, including national and local government authorities; private homes; solicitors' offices; churches; and others from all over the country. They are kept together for permanent preservation and public access under the care of experts in their conservation, storage and interpretation.

For a full list of the documents in the catalogue, see the Record office - catalogue page. You can also search the catalogue using keywords, document reference, title or date.

Depositing records with the County Record Office

Records considered worthy of permanent preservation can be deposited at the County Record Office for safekeeping and to be made available for study. If you want to deposit your records with us, you can find relevant information on the loans, donations and bequests page. You might also find it useful to familiarise yourself with our full conditions of deposit.

County Record Office preservation policy

The County Record Office cares for millions of documents of all shapes, sizes and ages which are housed in one purpose-adapted repository in Northallerton. As part of this work, we have established a preservation policy that encompasses all procedures and processes involved in the stabilisation and protection of documents to prolong their useful life and to minimise harmful effects.

For details of all County Record Office policies, see the policies page.

Online archives Search through our catalogue of over 4000 summary descriptions from all our archive collections and item level descriptions of selected collections.