Subscription service

Essex Archives Online offers digital images of thousands of documents from the Essex Record Office (ERO), including historic Essex parish registers and wills.

A few images, mainly of pictorial material, are available to view free of charge, but to see other images outside the ERO Searchroom you will need to register and then buy a subscription.

On Thursday 2 July, between 8.30 a.m. and 9.00 a.m. (BST), essential maintenance will be carried out on the Council's financial system. There may be a short period when it will not be possible to buy either new subscriptions to Essex Archives Online or individual images. We apologize for the inconvenience that this will cause. Existing subscriptions are not affected. [Message posted on 1 July, 2.30 p.m.]

A subscription gives you access to these images:

• 590,000 images of Church of England parish registers from Essex and north-east London.  To find out what registers we hold from each parish, and to identify images available online to subscribers, visit our Parish Registers page.  For more details see our subscription service FAQs.  The Parish Registers page also describes the parish register name indexes available via Ancestry (the registers are not indexed on this site).  These indexes exclude some of the most recent registers, but otherwise they allow non-subscribers to click through into this site and buy individual parish register images by email.  Subscribers may also find them useful.

• 175,000 images of original wills from Essex and eastern Hertfordshire, dating between 1400 and 1858.  These can be found by searching the catalogue for the word will and a name, occupation or place-name. More information about what these records contain can be found in our subscription service FAQs

• 13,000 images of electoral registers for various years between 1833 and 1868, plus 1918 and 1929.  To find these search the catalogue for Images (under 'Refine your search') using the search term electoral register.  Add a place-name or date range if you wish, but please note that these images are not indexed by name. 

• 750 images of Essex Industrial School admission registers, 1872-1914.  To find these search the catalogue for Document Reference D/Q 40.  These images are not indexed by name.  

Subscription prices

Subscriptions are available for various periods between 1 day and 1 year  

• 1 day (24 hours) - £20.00
• 1 week (7 days) - £30.00
• 1 month (30 days) - £40.00
• 6 months (182 days) - £70.00
• 1 year (365 days) - £95.00

These prices include Value Added Tax (VAT) at the current UK rate (VAT registration GB1042528 13).  Subscribers from outside either the UK or the EU will not be charged VAT.