Family History

About us

City of Westminster Archives Centre holds a wide variety of sources to assist you with your family history research. The vast majority of our records cover the Westminster area (including the former Metropolitan Boroughs of Marylebone and Paddington), but we also offer access to an extensive range of online resources and books to assist you with your wider research.

Researching family history at the Archives Centre

Researchers visiting our Archives Searchroom have access to the following facilities and resources:

• Free access to a selection of online family history databases, including Ancestry and Findmypast
  
  
• General Register Office indexes of births, marriages and deaths on microfiche and online
  
   
• A wide range of primary sources for Westminster family history, including parish records and registers, rate books, directories, electoral registers, census returns, local newspapers and school records. For further details see our Information Leaflets
  
  
• Helpful guides to general and specific areas of family history research in our library collections 
  
  

• Knowledgable staff to provide advice on researching your family history

Accessing our resources remotely

• Contact us to make an enquiry about the records we hold, or to ask us for advice about your research
  
  
• Search our collections remotely using our online catalogues: WESTCAT for archival collections, Westminster E-library for books and pamphlets, and WULOP for periodicals
  
  
• Download our Family History Information Leaflets and Library Collection Guides
  
  
• Visit the Westminster Libraries Gateway to find links to useful family history sites
  
  
• Enjoy exploring our collections through our online history projects, including
the Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson and Westminster Memories

Requesting copies of parish registers

We can supply copies of Westminster parish register entries. To order a copy, you need to provide the exact date and the church in which the event was registered. We can also provide census entries where the exact address is known.

To request a copy, please contact us by post or by email. A charge of £4 is made per copy supplied.

Commissioning a researcher

If you need someone to search through records on your behalf, we recommend that you use a professional record agent. Details of professional researchers can be obtained from the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives