Here at ERO we offer an in-house search service, wherein researchers can request archival material to be examined and reported on. This can be ideal for those keen to access historical Essex records that cannot otherwise visit the archives in person. This service can assist with:

Genealogical enquiries
We can search our records to help you with your family history, utilising our parish register collection, marriage license bonds, poor law records, estate records, hospital records, school records, manorial court rolls, or any other records which hold details of your ancestors.
ERO also has access to services like Ancestry and FindMyPast and so can cross-reference with national indices such as the 1841-1921 census returns and civil registration birth/marriage/death entries.
See our guide on starting your Family History for more details.

House history
We can search our records for information on the history of properties within Essex. The ERO holds a large collection of pre-1946 building plans, as well as historic maps, pre-registration deeds, electoral registers, and sale catalogues.
See our guide on starting your House History for more details.

Transcribing Handwriting
We can transcribe wills, deeds, or any other documents from our collection comprised of antiquated script, or otherwise mystifying handwriting. Please note however that we do not offer a translation service so cannot transcribe documents in Latin or any other language.

Any other historical interests
If you have interests in other aspects of Essex history, not included in the above categories, there may still be interesting material we can search for you, so please do get in touch for a discussion.

If you are interested in a search, email us at ero.searchservice@essex.gov.uk and we can send a request form over to you. Searches are currently charged at a rate of £43.75 per hour.

Once searches are complete, you will be contacted to make payment either over the phone, or you may wish to pay in advance with a cheque or postal order. We will then email over a written report, outlining everything that was compiled and examined, along with all the information was collected from them*. Where appropriate we can also include photographs of documents. We advise all researchers to first have a look over our online catalogue Essex Archives Online to identify material of potential interest. You can then include the relevant document references on the application form.

*It is always worth remembering that we cannot guarantee positive information from a search, and it may well be that search results are minimal or negative.

Stay tuned for our upcoming monthly series showcasing a selection of case studies that our search service team have worked on. Next month we will be exploring sixteenth century will transcriptions.