How Do I Tell If a Record Is Digitised?

What should you look for first?

A Discovery entry states whether a digital copy is available and how to view it. If no digital copy is shown, the record is still held, but viewing it means a visit or a copy order where offered.

The catalogue entry is a record in its own right. Read it fully before you open the record it describes, because it tells you what you are about to see. A suspicion written into a timeline as if it were a fact is hard to remove later, because every later entry gets built on top of it.

Working through it in order

Start from the reference, not from the search box: know which record you are about to open, and why, before you open it. 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 you are unsure which step comes first, choose the step that fixes a date. Dates order everything else, and an unfixed date disorders everything else.

• 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

Ranks, trades and roles should be read with their dates, because acting rank, temporary postings and reorganisations all leave traces that look like contradictions. Read the file backwards as well as forwards. A later sheet often explains an earlier entry that looked, at first reading, like an error. An entry that names a place but no unit, or a unit but no date, is a partial clue. Use it to frame the next search, not to close the question.

Where this kind of research usually stalls

A gap in a record is a finding, not a failure. Note the gap, its dates, and what kind of record might fill it, instead of filling it with a plausible story. A photograph, a medal, or a story that points to a unit the records do not support is a prompt for one more check, not evidence that the records are wrong.

• 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 to open after this one

Move between record types deliberately, and note the move. A timeline that jumps record types without noting the jumps cannot be audited. Check the holder current guidance before any next step that involves a request, a copy, or a visit. Guidance changes, and a step planned on old guidance wastes a session. The best next step is the smallest one that answers a real question. Grand searches rarely beat a single well-chosen record.