This is a brief guide to help you with your research into British colonies and dependencies. A number of government departments have had responsibility for colonies and dependencies at different times. Their individual filing systems can make it complicated to identify the records you want. This guide will help you to find some of the key records held at The National Archives.
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What do I need to know before I start?
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Try to find out:
- when the country was a British colony or dependency
- if the country has been known by any other name
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What records can I see online?
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Cabinet papers (1916-1978)
Search and download British Cabinet papers relating to specific colonies and dependencies.
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Colonial state papers (1574-1737)
Search and download records from Colonial state papers (institutional subscription required). This is a collection of thousands of scanned documents and bibliographic records relating to English activities in the American, Canadian, and West Indian colonies between the 16th and 18th centuries.
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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Colonial Office records (1801-1978)
Search Discovery, our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies, by name of country to see what records survive from the Colonial Office and other government departments.
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Maps and plans (1595-1927)
Search our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies for Colonial Office Maps and Plans in CO 700 by name of country.
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Photographs (1815-1986)
Search our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies for the Colonial Office Photographic Collection in CO 1069 by name of country.
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, pay for research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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Records relating to India
Visit the British Library website to find out about their holdings of British government records relating to India and to territories administered from India, as well as records of the East India Company.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Books
Read Administering the Empire, 1801-1968: A Guide to the Records of the Colonial Office in The National Archives of the UK by Mandy Banton (Institute of Historical Research/The National Archives, 2008).
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Websites
Visit the website of the British Documents on the End of Empire project to find out about this project to publish material from The National Archives recording the final stages of Britain's association with the colonies.
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Foreign countries
Immigrants
Emigrants