Accessibility statement

Finding aids

Finding aids to some of our archives are available to download here.

A finding aid to an individual collection includes a detailed description of the collection, explains how it is organized, and outlines its contents.

Online finding aids

Some of our finding aids are available to search online:

Paper & downloadable finding aids

Our original archive catalogues were created before the digital age, when databases and the internet were not in use.

We're currently working on making our paper lists available via a searchable online database, but this project will take several years.

As an interim measure, a number of our finding aids are available to download and view below.

Finding aidsNotes
University Archive A number of finding aids for the University Archive are available online
Parish Registers Deposited at the Borthwick Institute (PDF , 158kb)  
Handlist of Parish Register Transcripts (PDF , 61,854kb) Annotated PDF of our 1976 handlist.
Registers of Admissions and Apprentices of the Eastland Company, York Residence This material is taken from Borthwick List and Index 17, 1996
Tithe Awards and Maps at the Borthwick Institute (PDF , 754kb) PDF version of our 1994 publication listing this collection
Julia Pascal Papers (PDF , 1,226kb) Part of the Sir Samuel Storey Writing and Performance Collection
Womersley Papers (PDF , 39kb) Financial papers of the estate, and individual occupants, of Womersley Park and Estate from the seventeenth century to 1947

We have other paper finding aids that we may be able to make available in this way so please contact us if there are others you would like to download.

Published finding aids

Published finding aids were produced for a number of our larger collections including the Rowntree Mackintosh Company archives, York Health Trust and The Wilberforce Memorial (York Blind School)

See our publications pages for further details.

Finding aids for microfilms

Visiting the microform room

  • Opening times for the microform room
  • Making copies from microfilm during your visit

The Borthwick's microform room contains a great deal of material available in self-service microform cabinets.

Some of this material consists of copies of documents that we hold in our strongrooms. We encourage researchers to use these microfilm copies in preference to the original archives in order to minimise wear and tear on the originals.

Finding aids for some of the archives are available to download below. Paper copies of all the finding aids are available in the microform room or searchroom.