The bees are on holiday

Our bee hive residents are currently enjoying a holiday and will return to their hive in approximately one month. We appreciate your understanding and will let you know as soon as they return. 

Family history searches

Chelmsford Museum has a large database of personnel who served in the Essex Regiment, which includes information about the:

  • Essex Regiment
  • Essex Volunteer and Territorial Units
  • Essex Home Guards
  • names of Essex war memorials
  • names from Rolls of Honour
  • names from Essex War Graves

If you are researching your family history and would like us to carry out a search of our collection, you can contact us. A donation to the Museum is kindly requested. 

To ask us for help for your family history search, you will need:

  • your name and contact details
  • to give us as much detail as possible, including family and location information

Once we have received your request we will:

  • carry out a search of our records to see what information we can find
  • update you once we have completed our search

Searches are currently being handled by our volunteers, and therefore may take several weeks.

Family history enquiries

Essex Regiment and Essex Yeomanry Museums do not hold individual soldiers' personal records.

If you want to find out about a particular soldier's service history, the following organisations may be useful.

These organisations will offer more information for a fee.

Soldiers who completed their service before 1920

If they have survived, documents are held at The National Archives.

They have been digitised and are available on the Ancestry and Findmypast websites. 

Soldiers who completed their service after 1920

Records of officers and soldiers whose service was later than 1920 are held by the Army Personnel Centre.