The collection blog

Most recent posts

• Catalogue Week 2025

  

  Published

  24 November 2025

  Archivist Jane Langford introduces our annual celebration of cataloguing projects at The National Archives.

• Cataloguing transatlantic slavery records: an archival history

  

  Published

  21 November 2025

  Cataloguer Adrian Browne traces the custodial history of the Detached Papers, investigating the legacies of Victorian-era recordkeeping.

• Cataloguing West African records

  

  Published

  21 November 2025

  Our volunteers have finished cataloguing Colonial Office correspondence from Cameroons and Togoland, explore these records here.

• Tracing medical records from the First World War

  

  Published

  14 November 2025

  Explore how we are preserving medical records from the First World War and how you can access them.

• The A–Z of the Royal Navy Captains' letters project – 'D' to 'M'

  

  Published

  5 November 2025

  Bruno Pappalardo reveals the latest findings of the volunteer Royal Navy Captains’ letters project.

• Secret diplomatic message deciphered after 350 years

  

  Published

  14 October 2025

  Ruth Selman shares an exciting update to her previous blog post about a 17th-century letter written in cipher.

• Cataloguing Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service records from the Second World War

  

  Published

  6 October 2025

  In February 2023, the Ministry of Defence began the monumental task of transferring ten million personal records to The National Archives. What do they contain?

• Think your ancestor might have worked in intelligence? Where to start your research

  

  Published

  29 September 2025

  If you have a family legend that a relative worked in intelligence, here are our top tips to get started with your research.

• Using The National Farm Survey as a gateway for research

  

  Published

  24 September 2025

  Discover how one farm in East Sussex can lead us on a journey through stage and screen, motorsport successes, and celebrity connections during the 20th century.

• Hidden in plain sight: an undeciphered letter from Louis XIV’s France

  

  Published

  4 August 2025

  This letter – sent from the court of King Louis XIV in Paris – contains coded text that historians have been unable to decipher...

• How to search for security and intelligence records: where to start

  

  Published

  1 July 2025

  Inspired to discover tales of espionage and intrigue? Find out how to start researching the records of MI5 and British intelligence services we hold.

• Researching hospital-related records

  

  Published

  27 June 2025

  Tracing hundreds of years, PhD student Jessica Gregory outlines some of the best ways to research hospital-related records at The National Archives.