The Family Records Centre (FRC) provided access to family history research sources mainly for England and Wales. It was administered jointly by the General Register Office (GRO) and The National Archives.
It opened in March 1997 and was fully operational by the following month. It was situated at 1 Myddelton Street, Clerkenwell, London, close to the London Metropolitan Archives. It closed in 2008.
Throughout the FRC, there was free access to a wide range of family history material, databases and internet websites. Staff were always available to provide help and advice on family history research and there were regular one-to-one family history surgeries and computer skills tutorials. Talks on family history topics took place every week and other events, including exhibitions and conferences, were organised. There were good facilities for customers with special needs, and there was a small bookshop next to the entrance on the ground floor and a refreshment area with vending machines and lockers for personal belongings in the basement.
Its main resources were indexes to civil registration of births, marriages and deaths on the ground floor (provided by the GRO), and the Victorian census returns on the first floor (provided by The National Archives).
Read more about Family Records Centre: Births, Marriages & Deaths Indexes, Census Returns For England & Wales, Other Microfilm Resources, The Demise of The FRC
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