Filed under The National Archives and Discovery: A Method Guide
Where should you start looking?
A closed record is one not yet open under the access rules that apply to it, often because of date or sensitivity. Closure is a status to note and re-check, not a dead end to work around by other means.
Search for the person you can prove, not the person you hope to find. The provable person has a number, a unit and a date range; the hoped-for person has only a story. A name spelled one way in one record and another way in the next is the same research problem wearing two spellings. Collect the variants before you search. The strongest first check is a boring one: does every filter agree, or does only one agree and the rest stay silent?
How do you work through it step by step?
Let dates set the sequence. When the order is unclear, sort by date and work forward, because records explain the entries that follow them, not the ones that precede them. If a step fails three times with three different filters, stop and change the record type. Persistence with one record type past three failures is rarely rewarded. If a finding surprises you, write the surprise down before you explain it. Explanations written first have a habit of erasing surprises.
- Fix the record series first, from the research guide for the record type you need.
- Search inside that series by unit, ship or date range, with the surname as a filter inside it.
- Read the catalogue description carefully: it tells you the dates, the coverage, and whether a digitised copy exists.
- Note the full reference before you open, download or order anything.
Making sense of what you find
Check whether an entry was written by the unit, by a clerk, or by a later compiler. The writer decides how much weight the entry can carry. Numbers matter more than names in these files. A service number, a roll number, or a piece reference will survive spelling changes that defeat name searches.
A medical entry, a pay entry, or a disciplinary entry should not be read as a character judgement. These are administrative categories, and they record process, not personality. A rank shown without a date is a snapshot, not a career. Find the date it belonged to before you use it to place the person anywhere.
Common traps in this record type
Note dead ends in the timeline itself, with dates. A timeline that shows where the trail went cold is more honest, and more useful, than one that jumps the gap. If a family paper and an official record cannot both be right, keep both, date both, and look for a third record. A third record breaks ties that argument cannot.
- A surname search run across all series at once.
- A name variant that the catalogue does not use.
- A closed record that cannot yet be opened.
- A digitised label covering only part of a piece.
What should you check next?
Before you open the next record, write down what you expect it to show and what would surprise you. That note is what turns reading into testing. The next step is usually a record that answers one specific thing: a date, a unit, a place, or a name, rather than a whole new area of research.
If the next step is unclear, return to the timeline and find its weakest link. The weakest dated entry, not the most interesting gap, is what to strengthen next. Leave each record better documented than you found it in your notes: reference, dates, filters, and what it actually said.
Primary sources for this guide
Everything here is kept general and tied to official holders, so check the current position with the holder for your own case. The guide is educational information only: it is not personal professional advice, it is not a lookup service, and it settles nothing about any one person's service.