Records of Parliament

THE RECORDS OF PARLIAMENT

The almost 1,000 volumes published by the IUP contain selected information from the British Parliamentary records. That printed set is but a small part of the massive records of Parliament. The records include bills, reports, accounts, papers, debates, votes, and many other government related documents. The original records are located in England. Fortunately, the information is also available in microform through selected repositories (particularly university libraries) in the U.S. and other countries. The earliest reproduction was done on microprint, opaque cards that require a special reader. A more recent edition is available on microfiche. Because of the tremendous cost of obtaining this collection, few libraries have the complete set. BYU now has the set on microfiche.

The records of the British Parliament are a complex source. The microprint edition that I have used at Brigham Young University is arranged by categories. The first is Journals from 1547 to 1900. The second is Hansard Parliamentary Debates from 1803 to 1918. The Hansard collection was largely compiled from published newspaper accounts. The third is Indexes to British Sessional Papers from 1696 to 1900. The index is by main subject headings only and is therefore far from complete. The last, and by far the largest, category is British Sessional papers from 1731 to 1900.

There are many reference books explaining the records of Parliament. There are also indexes to records found in the Parliamentary papers. In addition to the ones mentioned in The Irish University Press Series of British Parliamentary Papers, see:

Bond, Maurice F. Guide to the Records of Parliament. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1971 (FHL Ref 942 A3bo).

The Records of Parliament: A Guide for Genealogists and Local Historians. Canterbury: Phillimore & Company Ltd., 1964.

Cockton, Peter. Subject Catalogue of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1801-1900. Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, 1988. (FHL 942 N23c) The five volumes to this index cover:

(Vol. 1) Central government and administration, national financy and financial institutions, population and demography, statistics, agriculture and rural society.

(Vol. 2) Industry and industrial society, trade and commerce, transport and communication.

(Vol. 3) Law and order, local government and local finance, poverty and social administration, education, information and recreation.

(Vol. 4) Health and housing, Ireland, the churches and religious affairs, India, Ceylon, Burma and Afghanistan.

(Vol. 5) The Dominions and colonies, slavery and the slave trade, defense and the armed services, foreign affairs and diplomacy, appendices, index.

Irish University Press. Index to British Parliamentary Papers on Australia and New Zealand 1800-1899. Blackrock, Co. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1974.

Index to British Parliamentary Papers on Canada and Canadian Boundary 1800-1899. Blackrock, Co. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1974.

Index to British Parliamentary Papers' on Childrens' Employment. Blackrock, Co. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1973.

Malta, Arthur. Ireland in the Nineteenth Centuy: A Breviate of Official Publications. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1979.

Rodgers, Frank. A Guide to British Government Publications. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1980.

Marshallsay, Diana & others. Ford list of British parliamentary papers, 1974-1983 : together with specialist commentaries. Cambridge, England: Chadwyck-Healey, 1989. (FHL 942 N23f)