Frequently asked questions

• I have forgotten my password and/or username and can't log in.
• I am looking for army records / birth records / death records.
• The data / documentation is taking too long to load.
• I want to perform calculations on the data. Can I download it to my own computer?
• I am trying to look at dataset documentation but can't see the image properly on screen.
• I want to import raw GIS data held in NDAD into my own GIS. What do I have to do?
• I am visually impaired and am having difficulty reading the information on the screen.

I have forgotten my password and/or username and can't log in.

Please use our contact form to tell us, giving your name, address and contact details. Once we have verified your identity, we will email your details to you. As soon as you receive them, please change your password to something more memorable to you, using the Change user details form.

I am looking for army records / birth records / death records.

Data made publicly available via NDAD's online interface does not include personal information about people. Where it does occur (for example in a table which contains information about museum and gallery staff collected as part of the Digest of Museum Statistics) it is anonymised to protect the privacy of those involved, and the relevant fields or tables are closed. For this reason NDAD is not a suitable resource for genealogists and family history researchers. More appropriate resources are available elsewhere on The National Archives' website.

The data / documentation is taking too long to load.

There is an option in the Query Builder which enables you to reduce the number of rows of data displayed at a time. Documentation, especially larger images such as maps, may take a long time to load. In this case there is an option to display the image at a lower resolution. Please be patient and only click the Display button once.

I want to perform calculations on the data. Can I download it to my own computer?

The data display interface does not allow calculations or any other kind of manipulation of the data other than those offered by the Query Builder. The Query Builder offers an option to download data (either whole tables, or the results of a query) as a CSV data file, which can then be used in many common data analysis packages. There is a limit on the size of files that can be downloaded as CSV: for data files that exceed this limit, you will need to use the ordering system to arrange for copies of the data to be made and sent to you, either on physical media such as CD ROM, by email, or using FTP.

I am trying to look at dataset documentation but can't see the image properly on screen.

Try increasing the resolution - though please bear in mind that the image will take longer to load. We can photocopy or otherwise reproduce pages of documentation on paper and send them to you by post if required, but image clarity and size may not be greatly improved.

I want to import raw GIS data held in NDAD into my own GIS. What do I have to do?

You may contact us to purchase copies of files in their original format (e.g. ArcView).

I am visually impaired and am having difficulty reading the information on the screen.

The National Archives and NDAD have followed advice from a number of organisations to try to ensure the website is suitable for use by blind people and those with visual difficulties. We have not been able to follow all their recommendations in all cases. In particular, the use of tables to layout tabular data is unavoidable. If you are a visually impaired person using a graphical browser, you may find it useful to tell your browser to override our background colour settings and to turn off image loading so that you see the alternative text for navigation buttons and similar items. We never employ absolute font sizes or types, so you can adjust the default font size in your browser and all pages will scale to suit your needs. We have tested our pages using a number of speaking web browsers and have had satisfactory, although not excellent, results. We would welcome your suggestions on how we could improve the site's accessibility.