Library Europe's largest nursing-specific collection

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Family search service

Use this form to request a search for a nursing ancestor.

We have worked with Ancestry to digitise our collection of the General Nursing Council’s Nursing Registers 1898-1968 and the Scotland Nursing Applications 1921-1945. If you have an Ancestry account, you can visit our partner page to search them.

If you do not have an Ancestry account submit the form below for RCN staff to search them for you. To find out more about nursing history visit our Family history page . The registers include the name, registration number and date, and occasionally include further information such as home address, and place and date of qualification.

Each search costs £20.

Your details

Who are you searching about

By submitting this form, you are giving the RCN permission to contact you about your family history enquiry.  

You can control the information you receive from the RCN by updating your preferences at MyRCN.

The information you provide in this form will be stored by the RCN.

Protecting your privacy is very important to us. Please view our privacy policy to find out more about the information we collect and how it is used.

Terms and Conditions:

1. We will search RCN records available on Ancestry.co.uk.

2. The information you give us will only be used for the purposes of the requested Family History Search and details will be deleted after 6 months.

3. RCN members are entitled to a free search.

4. Members of the public can request an hour’s search at the rate of £20.

5. A link to take payment will be sent once the search form is received; searches will not be started until payment has been received and processed. All payments are non-refundable.

6. If a search is unlikely to produce results (for example, due to data protection legislation) the requestor will be contacted before the search is conducted.

7. A full report of the searches conducted and the results found will be sent to the requestor within 10 working days of receiving payment, regardless of whether the searches were successful or not. Reports will be sent as PDF attachments via email.