Practical Archival Skills Training: Early Modern

The Early Modern collections at The National Archives provide remarkable insights into the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. They allow researchers to deeply examine how the Tudor, Stuart, and Hanoverian possessions were governed, while also enabling researchers to study ordinary lives in great detail.

As the centuries progressed, the scale of government expanded and learning how to navigate this increasingly vast collection is at the centre of this two-day workshop. Our aim is to give you the necessary skills to pursue your own research.

Day One will be delivered online, focussing on strategies that demonstrate how best to use the Advanced Search functionality in Discovery, our catalogue, and what to do when online searches do not return you the results you expect. We will also look at how the collection was assembled over the centuries and introduce key skills in handling, pagination and dating of records.

Day Two will be held in-person at The National Archives and will introduce you to the early modern state, offering critical insights into collections from key series at The National Archives that are relevant for premodern research including Chancery, Exchequer and Treasury, State Papers, and the records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. The day will finish with a session on finding documents for your own research.

At the end of the course, you will have increased confidence in your ability to find and access previously challenging early modern documents and to read their contents.

This event is aimed at current taught postgraduate and PhD students, though all researchers new to using Early Modern archival documents are welcome. The workshops will be delivered by specialists from The National Archives. Tea and coffee at registration is provided.

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