Are you looking for an ancestor?
- The Modern Records Centre and its records have proved increasingly useful to family historians around the globe who are tracing the lives and activities of their ancestors. Although the records in its care are not exactly tailor-made sources for the family historian, and those sources that can be used are few in number (the Centre does not generally take in membership records), nevertheless certain collections can yield useful information.
- The Centre holds an unrivalled collection of UK trade union, employers' and trade association archives, and these in particular have been used to explore more about the working lives of various individuals. The Centre has produced an occupational guide
to its sources, although family historians should note that many of the unions listed have not deposited membership records at the Centre. - These pages are intended to provide a guide to those collections and sources that have been of particular interest and use to genealogists. They give a summary description of the collections and the information required before being able to access their possible genealogical content. They include negative results.
- Researchers are encouraged to visit the Centre in person. The Centre's staff can only do a very limited amount of searching for a given enquiry. Thus we can only accept enquiries concerning one individual. For detailed or more extensive enquiries you are very welcome to use the Centre in person or to arrange for a professional researcher to visit on your behalf. Warwickshire County Record Office maintains a list of local record searchers.
- Please be aware that trade union membership registers rarely contain a great deal of information on each member and that if you have enough information to conduct a search it is very likely that you already have more information about the individual than the registers will provide.
- Below is a list of occupations covered by trade union archives for which genealogical guides are currently available.
