Welcome to the History Research service information page.

Historical Research

Duncan Harrington was at Nottingham University and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Fellow of the Society of Genealogists of London and Licentiate of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies (Dip. Gen.). He has worked in Kent as a free-lance research historian and archaeologist since 1969. He has been secretary to the Council for Kentish Archaeology, and is now one of their Hon. Members and a Hon. Member of the Kent Archaeological Society. He was Chairman of the Association of Genealogists and Record Agents and has worked at the National Archives as an Editor. He is president of the Kent Family History Society and assists in their record series and for the Kent Archaeological Society has been compiling their Kent Records, New Series. He has contributed to The New D.N.B. and to the revision of the Oxford English Dictionary. He has taught extensively in Adult Education and part-time for the School of History at the University of Kent.

Whilst tending to specialise in early modern research we are quite happy to undertake research in the areas outlined, for a wide range of periods and are always pleased to provide an estimate for the cost of any particular enquiry. We would be delighted to assist you with research anywhere in Kent and at the British Library including the Manuscripts Department, the National Archives (Public Record Office), Ruskin Avenue, Kew, the Principal Probate Registry, the London Metropolitan Archives, Northampton Road and the Duchy of Cornwall Record Office. Research is often undertaken in other areas by arrangement

Our charges are £45 per hour together with any out of pocket expenses for travelling at cost (which normally works out to £7.50 per hour of research time), photocopies, digital scans, certificates, postage and packing etc. Travelling time will not normally be charged, only the time spent in the Record Office working on your case, the reporting time and where necessary time spent in assessing your case will be included in the fee. For record offices, archives and libraries not visited on a regular basis there will normally be a minimum charge of five hours research.

We have currently found an increasing demand for transcription and translation work and believe that we are amongst a small number of people prepared to offer this service on a wordage basis. It is normally possible to provide transcriptions of complete Early English documents at the rate of £8 per 100 words and Latin translations at £10 per 100 words of English text. If the condition of the documents is such that considerable time has either to be spent under the ultra-violet light or in reading the text then the cost will be advised.

We trade in GBPounds and are happy to receive cheques drawn on a London bank or personal cheques in a foreign currency which we can convert to sterling. (Charges will be deducted from the sums sent.) We have recently opened a PayPal account which we hope will make it easier for our overseas customers to pay us on line but ask that 6.0% is added to the account to cover their charges

For more information or to arrange a consultation, please contact us either via email by clicking on the contact button on this page or at history.research@btinternet.com . You may also call us at +44 (0)1303 862368 from 0900hrs to 1700hrs.

We look forward to being able to assist you with your researches..

e-mail Duncan Harrington