Our new Archives and Local History Service opened on Monday 5th January 2015, following the completion of the building phase of our £1.6m Heritage Lottery Funded York: Gateway to History project.
During the course of the work we have:
- created a new purpose-built store at York Explore Library Learning Centre to house the city’s archive collections
- launched our new archives catalogue, allowing you to search our collections from the comfort of your own home
- catalogued and made available over 6,000 books from our Local History collection, which are now searchable on the library catalogue
- opened a space previously closed to the public as our new Family History room
- launched a number of projects with community groups across the city to help them engage with our collections and their own archives
We have also refurbished our Archives Reading Room, where you can view original documents from over 800 years of York’s past.
In our Family History room you can:
- search for births, marriages and deaths and census returns on Ancestry.com
- uncover stories from your family’s past in our historic newspapers
- check out the latest ‘how to’ family history guides and magazines
- take your research further with our selection of family history websites
If you would prefer to bring your own laptop or tablet you can access these resources for free anywhere in the library over our Wifi network.
In our Local History room you can:
- access thousands of published books and journals about York and the surrounding area
- discover where your ancestors lived in the city with our map collection
- find out who lived and worked in York with our trade and street directories
- find a peaceful place to work or read in our Quiet Study space
To find out more about the services we offer and how to visit us on our website – www.exploreyork.org.uk, or pop in to York Explore Library.
You can keep up to date with how the new service is progressing here on the blog, or via our Facebook pages and two Twitter Feeds, @yorklibrariesuk and @yorkarchivesuk
Welcome to the blog of the Explore York Archives Service 
Re your blog of Oct you are incorrect re early date of the Munby family being solicitors in York. Joseph Munby senior did not arrive in York from Hull until the late eighteenth century and worked with other solicitors. His son Joseph set up the firm which became Munby and Scott in the early 1800’s. As a descendant, who has written about the family, using your archive as well as other family papers, I am quite familiar with the dates.