How to look for records of... Other countries and territories – an overview

As with all records held at The National Archives, those that relate to other countries are historical records created in the everyday business of central government departments or, otherwise, inherited by those departments from elsewhere. Though almost any government department could have created or inherited records relating to one country or another, there are some departments whose core purpose was to manage relationships with, and British interests in, states and territories outside of Britain or, prior to the formation of Britain, England. During the colonial period, some of these departments managed the actual affairs of the territories themselves. The records of these departments, listed below, are usually the best place to start when looking for historical information on other countries in our collections.

Records are not transferred to The National Archives until they are at least 20 years old.

Records of the Foreign Office, 1782-1968

A predecessor of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Foreign Office, created in 1782, was the government department responsible for the conduct of British relations with nearly all foreign states. Records include correspondence between British embassies and consulates around the world with the central office in London. It is one of the largest collections held at The National Archives.

Records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1968 onwards

Established in 1968 and the direct predecessor of today’s FCDO, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office continued the responsibilities of the Foreign Office but also administered the remaining British dependencies and managed relations with the Commonwealth (previously the responsibility of the Commonwealth Office).

Records of the Colonial Office, 1570-1990

The government department responsible for administering most British colonies as well as ‘protectorates’, in which the British nominally administered on behalf of a local political authority. In some places, British rule, following the First World War, was ‘mandated’, where the authority to govern was issued by the League of Nations.  Whatever the status, the government department responsible for British rule overseas was usually the Colonial Office.

Although not established until 1854, our Colonial Office collection includes records of its predecessors from the 16th century onwards. Most of the records die out following the date that each colony gained independence. Though the Colonial Office itself ceased to exist in 1966, some of the records in this collection, notably Government Gazettes, date from as late as 1990. Not included among these records are the records of the colonial governments themselves – these are usually retained by the country at independence.

Records of the Dominions Office, 1843-1990

Established in 1925 and responsible for semi-autonomous territories known as British dominions, which were Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland and South Africa and some anomalous territories, such as the ‘High Commission territories’ of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. Includes Sessional Papers, Government Gazettes, Acts, records from various High Commissioners and other document types. The Dominions Office inherited many records of these same places dating prior to 1925.

Records of the State Papers Office, 1509-1782

The predecessor of the Foreign Office and the Home Office. Its records relating to other countries are referred to as State Papers Foreign and to British/English colonies as State Papers Colonial.

Cabinet Papers, 1915 onwards

Records of the Cabinet Office, often collectively referred to simply as Cabinet Papers, cover every major area of government policy and strategy, whether domestic or international. Inevitably, therefore, the Cabinet Office generates significant amounts of written material on Britain’s relationship with other countries as well as its former colonies.

Maps, plans and international boundaries

The National Archives holds tens of thousands of maps of towns, cities, regions and countries around the world. We also hold old plans of buildings, fortifications, harbours, and countless other installations, from all over the globe, many in ex-English and British colonies but others from elsewhere. Many of these maps and plans are held among the records of the offices described above.

Some maps were created to record international boundaries and borders, in many cases supported by other records including treaties, diplomatic despatches and survey data, some dating back centuries, others from recent decades.

Photographs

There are large numbers of photographs held at The National Archives that were taken or collected by British diplomats and other government officials stationed overseas. Most are held among the records of the government departments described above but there are also a great many photographs taken on foreign soil among the records of the various branches of the military.

Searching for records of other countries at The National Archives either begins with keyword searches in our catalogue or with online or sometimes printed indexes, registers or calendars, some available only at our reading rooms in Kew.

Identifying the right department

Records are organised into collections known as departments, each with its own letter reference and usually corresponding to the government department which created them. For example, all Foreign Office records are identified with the department reference FO. Which record departments you search within will, in general, depend upon the relationship that the present-day country had with Britain or England at the time you are interested in – whether all or part of it was a colony, protectorate or dominion or whether it was a foreign power or a colony of a foreign power. There are, however, exceptions to these general rules.

Use the table below to determine which collections of records to go to depending on the nature of the relationship the country or territory had with Britain (or England) at the time that you are interested in. If you are unsure of the relationship, consult the table of present-day countries in the final section of this guide which will also provide you with some search tips, including alternative names and terms which you can search with

Using our catalogue

The easiest way to get started, though not always the most effective, is to try a search of our online catalogue. When using our catalogue to search, you can focus on one or more departments using the advanced search and specify one or more department references. The records of each department are divided up into series, in some cases hundreds of series. You can narrow your search even further by targeting specific series using the table of present-day countries in this guide. More comprehensive lists of series for each country are published in the books Foreign Office Records 1782 to 1986 and Administering the Empire, 1801-1968, available at our library and the latter of the two available to download for free from the University of London Press website.

Using indexes, registers and calendars

In many instances, keyword searches in our catalogue will not get you very far. You will probably need to use additional indexes, registers or calendars to complete or even start your search. Some of these are available online, others are only available at our building in Kew. Whether you need to use them and how you use them is explained in the respective guides listed in the table below.

Finding maps, plans and photographs

You can use our catalogue to search for maps, plans and photographs. See our guides to overseas maps and plans, international boundaries and photographs for detailed advice.

Key to departments and guides

Each record, whether a file of correspondence, a report, map or set of photographs has a document reference (also referred to as a catalogue reference). A successful catalogue search will provide you with one or more document references. A document reference usually has three parts (though four or more are possible): one for the department, one for the series and one for the piece. For example, FO 177/503 is the document reference for the annual report on Peru in 1938 from the British Embassy there. FO is the department, 177 is the series and 503 is the piece.

Once you have document references you can request the records themselves via the catalogue. Most of these records have no online version and to see them you will need to consult them at our building in Kew or pay for copies to be made and emailed to you, in both instances using your document references to place your request.

The guides listed in the table above indicate where online versions of records do exist. The online copies are accessed either directly from our website or from the websites of our licensed partners, primarily AM Digital and Gale, both of which require institutional subscriptions. There is free access to them at our building in Kew and at some reference and university libraries.

Use the list of countries in the table below to get a search started quickly. The table includes some key record series either specific to each country or to the part of the world in which it is located (the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in particular, organized files into regions as well as countries). For a full list of record series for each country consult the following books, available at our library in Kew: Foreign Office Records 1782 to 1986 and Administering the Empire, 1801-1968 (download for free from the University of London Press website).

The table also provides you with additional terms that you can use (besides the name of the country itself) when searching our catalogue or the registers and calendars you may also need to use (see section above on ‘Where and how to search for records’ for more on this). The ‘Notes’ column will help you understand where and why records were dealt with by one government department or another and how and why the department filed those records.

Usually essential to any search for records dated between 1906 and 1966, but not included in the table, is series FO 371. This is the single largest series of records on other countries at The National Archives and contains correspondence between the Foreign Office’s Political Departments and its representatives all over the world as well as foreign diplomats, politicians and even heads of state. See our guides to Foreign Office correspondence 1906-1919 and 1920 onwards for advice on how to search in FO 371.

Click on a record series link in the table to search that series in our catalogue using keywords. In some cases you will need to browse the series as the descriptions for each record are generic and therefore not searchable with meaningful terms.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

*For a full list of record series for each country consult the following books, available at our library in Kew: Foreign Office Records 1782 to 1986 and Administering the Empire, 1801-1968 (download for free from the University of London Press website).

International archives

Visit the websites of archives in the country of interest to find records of their government’s relations with Britain. Records on the colonies of other countries will be held in the archives of the country that governed the colony.

Websites

Consult Documents on British Policy Overseas (institutional subscription required) for key documents from the 20th century. The collections have also been published and should be available in many universities and a few public libraries.

Books

Administering the Empire, 1801-1968 by Mandy Banton (University of London Press).

Foreign Office Records 1782 to 1986: An index to country series edited by James Cronan and Keith Mitchell (Lists and Index Society, 2017).

Never Complain, Never Explain: Records of the Foreign Office and the State Paper Office 1500-c.1960 by Louise Atherton (PRO Readers’ Guide No 7, 1994).

The Records of the Foreign Office, 1782–1968 by Michael Roper (Public Record Office Publications, 2002).