Queen Elizabeth II at the Public Record Office, 1978In February 1978, HM Queen Elizabeth II visited the new Public Record Office site in Kew. This photograph shows the Queen accompanied by former members of PRO staff, Norman Evans and Don Gubbins.

The public records have been housed at various sites during their long history, including Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and the purpose-built 19th century Public Record Office building in Chancery Lane, Holborn. Today the main site of the Public Record Office is at Kew and all original documents are consulted here. There is also a site for family historians at the Family Records Centre in Islington, Central London. The microfilms of censuses since 1841 can be consulted here, as well as registers of births, marriages and deaths held by the Office for National Statistics.