This article describes the Greater Manchester Past Finder project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The purpose of this project was to create a database of fonds‐level descriptions for all the significant archives held by the 11 local authority repositories in the Greater Manchester region. These descriptions are now available online through the Greater Manchester County Record Office's website, . This forms an extensive source of information, unlocking the valuable resources of Greater Manchester's archives. The article summarises the administrative situation in the Greater Manchester area and the difficulties this causes for archives provision, and explains why the project was so important. It further outlines the aims of the project and its place in the context of other similar schemes. It describes the planning and implementation of the project using the archive management software CALM. To conclude, the article addresses some of the issues that have arisen, and ...