A fascinating catalogue of Wiltshire's historic archives is available to explore at the click of a mouse.

The internet-based Access to Archives (A2A) project is helping researchers from all over the UK and abroad to track down documents held in Wiltshire's archives.

More than 3,000 catalogues detailing the collections held by Wiltshire County Council at the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office in Trowbridge are now available online via the www.a2a.org.uk

The catalogues cover archives relating to schools, families, estates, churches, businesses, courts and local government.

The catalogues, which comprise around 15,000 pages, allow researchers and family and local historians to find out what sources are available in the archives before they visit the record office.

A professor of Latin American studies at Bristol University was able to trace share certificates from 1828 to 1840, relating to a Mexican silver mine, discovered in the archive of a Wiltshire family.

Other people have used A2A to research their family history. Den Banister from Gloucestershire was able to link for the first time two branches of his ancestors in the Bradford family in Clyffe Pypard, between Calne and Wootton Bassett, and Ramsbury.

By the summer, catalogues of all the archives held at the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office will be available digitally through A2A.

Archivisit Steven Hobbs said: "The A2A pages for Wiltshire are proving to be very popular.

The latest monthly figures for February show there were 14,740 hits on the Wiltshire section of the A2A database during the month."