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Methodology · Release record

The route back
stays visible.

A transparent division of source, presentation and responsibility is the foundation of the Crown Archives index.

01

Define the boundary

Reviewed institutional gateways, a 5,000-record archival catalogue, a 3,000,000-dossier editorial layer and a separate 5.55-million-title open-reference index.

02

Retrieve public context

Visible reference listings request the current description, lead extract and revision through the MediaWiki Action API, then audit selected Wikidata authority statements for competing dates, references, qualifiers and rank before using them as research signals.

03

Preserve provenance

Every record retains the name or URL of its responsible source. The interface never converts source material into a proprietary claim.

04

Review the evidence, not the subject

Each dossier adds a record-specific review, evidence profile, critical limits and research path. It does not manufacture ratings or replace specialist judgment.

05

Publish limits

Catalogue inclusion is not endorsement, completeness or specialist verification. High-consequence research should continue into primary records and qualified scholarship.

Published layers

Three catalogues.
Three clear duties.

Reviewed gateways10

Institutional portals reviewed for scope, ownership and public discovery access.

Archival records5,000

CC0 Wikidata records with direct links back to their public source pages.

Research dossiers3.00M

Record-specific summaries, reviews, evidence profiles, critical limits, research paths, subject indexes and verification routes.

Reference titles5.55M

English Wikipedia main-namespace titles with source attribution and revision history.

Open the source register