Essex Archives and Libraries

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Essex

Archives and Libraries

Archives

Essex Record Office
Wharf Road
Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6YT UK
Telephone: 03330 132 500
Email: ero.enquiry@essex.gov.uk
Website
Essex Archives Online
Research services

Our holdings, which include parish registers, diaries, letters, court records, wartime records, manorial records and school records, take up nearly 8 miles of shelving, making us one of the largest county archives in England.

• Parish registers
  

The Essex Record Office (ERO) holds registers from over 400 parishes, covering the present county of Essex, including Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock, and also those parts of north-east London that used to be in Essex. Most parishes have registers from the 17th or 18th century onwards, but some go back to 1538.

Essex Archives Online includes images of all registers of baptisms, marriages and burials that have been deposited either in the ERO or with our partners at Waltham Forest Archives. It excludes only baptism registers less than 16 years old and marriage registers from after 1957.

Archives for Boroughs Now in London

Barking and Dagenham Archives and Local Studies Centre
Valence House
Becontree Avenue
Dagenham, London RM8 3HT UK
Telephone: 020 8227 2033
Email: localstudies@lbbd.gov.uk
Website

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Havering Local Studies Library
Central Library
St. Edwards' Way
Romford, London RM1 3AR UK
Telephone: 01708 432392
Email: localstudies@havering.gov.uk
Website

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Newham Archives and Local Studies Library
Stratford Library (First floor)
3 The Grove
Stratford, London E15 1EL UK
Telephone: 020 3373 6881
Email: archiveslocalstudies@newham.gov.uk
Website

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Redbridge Archives and History
Redbridge Central Library
Clements Road
Ilford, London IG1 1EA UK
Telephone: 020 8708 2414
Email: info.heritage@visionrcl.org.uk
Website

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Waltham Forest Archives and Local Studies Library
Vestry House Museum
Vestry Road
Walthamstow, London E17 9NH UK<brTelephone: 020 8496 4381
Email: vhm.enquiries@walthamforest.gov.uk
Website

Libraries

• Essex Library Locations and Contact Information

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Albert Sloman Library - Special Collections
Library
The University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
Colchester, Essex CO4 3UA UK
Telephone: 01206 873192
Email: libline@essex.ac.uk
Website

Museums

• For a long list of Essex museums, go to List of museums in Essex in Wikipedia.

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Chelmsford Museums
Oaklands Park
Moulsham St.
Chelmsford, Essex CM2 9AQ UK
Telephone: 1245 605700
Website

Chelmsford Museums consists of Chelmsford Museum, the Essex Regimental Museum, and the industrial and science collections at Sandford Mill.

Civil Registration Offices

The General Register Office holds a central copy of all birth, marriage, and death registrations in England. These certificates can be ordered from their website (a login is required but it is free to register and search). However, in some cases research can be more efficient working with the smaller, more specific records collections of county/district registry offices.

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Sometimes research might be required to determine where a town or parish was in a former registration district, or even its current district. For a list of the historic and current registration districts and their parishes, see UKBMD: Registration Districts in Essex.

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Essex County Council Register Office

• Certificate copies Get a certificate for a birth, marriage or death that happened in Essex.

We can give you certificates for births, marriages and deaths that happened in the area administered by Essex County Council, and from 1 July 1837.

We can’t give you certificates for births, marriages and deaths that happened in areas of Essex run by other Councils including Southend-on-Sea, Thurrock, e.g. Orsett, London Boroughs of Havering e.g. Romford, Hornchurch and Harold Wood, Barking and Dagenham, Waltham Forest, Newham and Redbridge e.g. Ilford.

We can’t supply certificates to people outside the UK.

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For certificate orders from the other offices in Essex, see:

• Southend-on-Sea Register Office
  
• Thurrock Register Office
  
• Havering Register Office
  
• Barking and Dagenham Register Office
  
• Waltham Forest Register Office
  
• Newham Register Office
  
• Redbridge Register Office
  

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