County record office

They usually also preserve written materials from a great variety of independent local organisations, churches and schools, prominent families and their estates, businesses, solicitors' offices and ordinary private individuals.

Archive repositories are frequently – but by no means exclusively – used by local and family historians for the purposes of original research, since many records can very often have a continuing administrative or legal significance.

To some extent it was operating within established traditions set by the London-based Public Record Office (now The National Archives), which first opened in 1838, or by other repositories overseas.

A number of record offices now operate in a formal association with one or more of their county’s principal local studies libraries, although the two professions of archivist and librarian generally remain quite distinct.

[3] Many county record offices have issued printed guides to their collections, although the addition of new materials can make these go rapidly out of date.

[4] Select lists for certain specialised categories covering many UK repositories have also been issued by a variety of other publishers, notably the Federation of Family History Societies.