What Documents are available at the British National Archives

There are tons and tons of documents available at the British National Archives. The documents that you are most likely to find here are records of the Army, Navy, Air force, wills and deaths, History, The wars (First World War and Second World War), security services, public service files, UFO files, and so forth. These files can be viewed on line from the National Archives government website.  They are also available for download as PDF files by the readers. Therefore, one does not need to go to Kew at The National Archives in order to access them.

The records, which were previously available on microfilm, have been made available to the public. However, one needs to be patient and possess great searching skills as these digital microfilms are very large (some of them are up to 800 pages long and are averagely 400MB in size).  Fortunately, going through the files has been made easy since they are indexed. The website also has a catalogue installed in place that one can go through in order to select a reference of their choice. This catalogue also assists readers who are unsure of the references of the material that they are searching for. By going through it, they can quickly identify the files they are interested in and get on with their reading.

Since the records are large, they come in series. However, when The National Archives digitised them, they made some of the documents come as single pieces from the series available. These records were made available in this format since they were frequently ordered by readers. Some of the records that are available in this format include Medal Book (MINT 16/112), War Badge: Officers (WO 329/3247) and Second World War Escape and Evasion Reports. This makes them more accessible to readers and in a friendlier file.

These records cover a wide range of topics. They are not necessarily historical in nature but they also have current news. For example, you can find information on the latest Security services from files available for download from http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/. Those who love science and are fascinated by nature are also not left behind; the UK government recently released new UFO files which can be viewed from http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos/. That is not all, other categories of records available include society and law, Home and Foreign Affairs, Military and Defence, a letter written by Philip IV of France concerning William Wallace, Irish maps from State Papers c.1558 - c.1610 (MPF), Registration Cards (MEPO 35) and the list goes on.