About

the Catalogue (formerly PROCAT)

The National Archives Catalogue contains 11 million searchable descriptions of records from central government, courts of law and other UK national bodies. The records (and their descriptions) are arranged under the different government departments that originated them. You can read more about the structure of the Catalogue and read our guide to the most popular codes for government departments.

Bear in mind that the Catalogue does not contain images of the documents, only references. When you've found a relevant reference, you can visit us to view the records free of charge or request copies to be sent to you for a small fee. When a record has been digitised its catalogue entry links to the image or relevant online resource. For example, images for some Catalogue records are available from DocumentsOnline, several census websites or an online exhibition. Data for the Catalogue is updated daily. We released an average of 2,300 entries per day in 2008 alone. There are three types of data improvements:

• Descriptions for records newly transferred from government departments
• Enhanced descriptions created as part of our ongoing Cataloguing Programme. See which parts of the Catalogue are currently being improved by going to our Cataloguing projects page.
• Amendments that we carry out regularly to correct mistakes reported by users.

Contact us for feedback and support

If you have any general enquires or comments about the Catalogue please use our feedback form or email us at cataloguehelp@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk

The National Archives' website search and the Catalogue

The National Archives' general website Search allows you to search the Catalogue at the same time as the Access to Archives (A2A) database, DocumentsOnline and other online resources. The general site search is a one-stop search across the holdings of The National Archives of the United Kingdom and of local and private archives (mostly in England) delivering fast results sorted by subject. Your results list will tell you which database each hit came from. There will also be a link to the Catalogue entry, so you can follow up on your findings. You can use the Advanced Site Search to select specific databases.

Digitisation projects and availability of records

Major digitisation initiatives are underway at The National Archives

For the first time a number of fascinating series will be searchable in a number of ways, further opening up what are already well-used resources at The National Archives, and giving you easy access to digital copies of the original records.

Chelsea Pensioners records digitisation project

Contractors on behalf of findmypast.com are currently scanning two entire record series under the heading of Chelsea Pensioners. These are:

• WO 96 (War Office: Militia Attestation Papers 1806-1915)
• WO 97 (Royal Hospital Chelsea: Soldiers Service Documents 1760-1913)

It is envisaged that the content will go live during 2011.

Readers should note that it might not be possible to access records while they are being scanned. We are working to minimise any disruption, and we will ensure that the number of pieces out of circulation will be kept to a minimum at any one time.

Please check the scanning schedule before you travel to The National Archives, to make sure that pieces you wish to consult are not affected.

Looking for people, places, subjects or organisations?

Looking for people, places, subjects or organisations? Try the Places, prominent people & subjects search.

This search takes you to Catalogue descriptions of key records about people, places, subjects and organisations. Because this search will not pick up every occurrence of a name or term, it is particularly useful, when searching for countries or regiment names, or if you are just trying to find a good place to start your research.

Family historians and those looking for all entries containing a particular surname should use the Search function.

User advisory group

The National Archives User Advisory Group for Social Inclusion is composed of users from a number of different UK communities, together with staff representing cataloguing and online user participation in relation to social inclusivity. The group has published research guides on sources for the British Transatlantic Slave Trade and on Gay and Lesbian History.

The Catalogue and Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act came fully into effect in January 2005. FOI gives you two new rights of access to information held by public bodies. You have the right to:

• Know whether the organisation holds the information that you are looking for
• Should the answer be yes, be provided with the information

The FOI Act replaces the access provisions of the Public Records Act, that allowed government records to be automatically closed for 30 years (the '30 year rule'). Under FOI, information of any age is open to the public unless an exemption applies. Exemptions are usually used where some harm might result if the information were to be released.

You can find out more about your rights under FOI and how to make a request here.

As a result of FOI, we have made some changes in the Catalogue. The key access information for the user is whether the records are open to the public or closed:

Open records
Access conditions The default information here is now "Normal Closure before FOI Act: 30 years". Closure status In most cases, the Catalogue displays the following: "Open Document, Open Description".

Closed or records retained by a government department
Access Conditions: All "Closed Or Retained" records have an additional explanatory note. Closure status In most cases, the Catalogue displays the following: "Closed Or Retained Document, Open Description".

If you wish to request access to a closed record held by The National Archives you can select .

The Request this screen for closed records will provide you access to an online form to make an FOI request. Once you have made your request, we will send you an autoresponse to confirm we have received it. We will then contact you about your request. The information in the record will be reviewed and if no exemption applies, the record will be opened. As we review the records, the Catalogue will be updated and closed records will become open.

Here is a link to our lists of records opened as a result of an FOI request.