Jersey Archive

Jersey Archive

The Archive reading room

Jersey Archive is the main repository of historical documents in Jersey. It was formed in 1993 with the objective of storing official government records and personal records and making them available to researchers. Originally based in the Jersey Museum in Pier Road, it moved to a purpose-built facility in Clarence Road in St Helier in 2000

The purpose of the Jersey Archive is to identify, select, collect, manage, preserve and provide access to Jersey’s records on behalf of the whole community, promoting the Island’s culture, heritage and sense of place both within its shores and beyond.

All readers require a reader ticket to gain access to archive material. This can be obtained from the Jersey Archive reception. For those who can’t visit in person, archive staff will answer any written, e-mail or telephone enquiries about the records in its care.

Uses of the Jersey Archive include family history, property history, general history of Jersey, the German Occupation, school projects, study for educational purposes, records needed for residential qualifications, boundary disputes, testamentary disputes and legal disputes.

Website

The Archive website contains a catalogue of its collection and a substantial collection of photographs and some documents which can be viewed on line. The links below provide direct access to some of this material and search facilities.

Understanding Jersey contracts
Online catalogue
Archive military records, information on military history of interest to the family researcher
Jersey Archive Occupation records Added 2016
Jersey Heritage historical articles - links to articles by Jersey Archive staff and other Jersey Heritage people
Jersey Archive official website main page - please follow this link for opening hours and other contact information

Please note that although every effort is made to ensure that links to external sites remain active, we have encountered a particular problem with Jersey Heritage, which moves content to different locations on its website or removes it altogether with amazing frequency. When we discovered that the previous link to the Archive's official website had been changed, we updated it. We hope that links from this page and other pages to the site remain active but apologise if any have been changed since we last checked. Some content which was previously freely accessible to all on the Archive site is now in the section reserved for subscribers, so we have had to remove links to this content.

Histories

What's your story? - aspects of Jersey family history researched by the Jersey Archive

Research

Resources for family historians at Jersey Archive

Gallery

A climate controlled strongroom
The reading room
Family history section
Storage units
The strongroom
Vacuuming a ledger
Stocktaking

Scanning

One of the Archive's most important activities is the scanning of photographs, maps and documents for eventual inclusion in their online catalogue, as featured on their Facebook page in 2023:

"Debbie and Shan, our digitisation officers, digitise the documents added to our online catalogue, making these records accessible to people all over the world and preserving them for future generations.

"In recent years, Debbie has digitised thousands of records that tell the story of the Occupation and Liberation, including from the Bailiff of Jersey's collection and Feldkommandant files. she continues this work with more collections from this important period in the Island’s history.

"Shan, who joined us earlier this year, has been hard at work on a number of projects, including a collection of 19th century letter books, which include correspondence between the Lieut-Governor and the UK Government about issues such as Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne in 1837. She has also been getting to grips with our new A0 scanner that enables us to digitise large plans and maps in remarkable detail.

"Toni digitises records that Archive users have requested copies of, and supports the wider digitisation programme, and the team of dedicated volunteers whose hard work has been invaluable in digitising the Jersey Evening Post photographic archive. Since 2017 staff and volunteers have digitised over 550,000 photographs, of which 200,000 are available online."