A familiar name to anyone researching family
history is that of the Society of Genealogists (SoG).
Think of a County Record Office, think of all the
birth/marriage/death and parish records, think of the
masses of other information necessary to those of us
caught up in family history - then multiply all this
information by the number of CROs and you will have
just a glimpse of the records held by SoG.
Why duplicate everything? Easy - suppose you
live in Devon and have interests in, say, Suffolk,
Cheshire and Northumberland, not to mention Aberdeen
and that's a lots of travelling, whereas take a
couple of visits to SoG and with luck .....
Else Churchill, SoG Genealogy Officer, came to the
November meeting of the Windsor/Slough Branch to give
an illustrated talk on "Using the Library at the
Society of Genealogists". Finding
alternative premises proved fruitless, so SoG is
undergoing a massive refurbishment and will close
completely during February 2001. But until then
- and afterwards - SoG is about 5 minutes from the
Barbican tube station; the Library is closed on
Mondays but open 10am-8pm on Wed/Thurs and 10am-6pm
on Tues/Fri/Sat. Non-members pay £3 for 1 hour, £8
for 4 hours and £12 for a day search; membership is
£30 a year payable by direct debit with a one-off
joining fee. Membership also means a discount
on purchases and courses with free access to the
Library.
First port of call for the newcomer is the Middle
Library Enquiry Counter where staff and volunteers
will help explain the whereabouts of the different
records and how to proceed. The name of the
game is INDEX - everything is indexed on a computer
catalogue; many records are fiched or on microfilm
although original or very fragile documents can be
examined in the Closed Access Area. A Heritage
Lottery grant will enable the computer catalogue to
go on-line and gradually records are being made
available so keep a watch on www.sog.org.uk.
Many records are to be found in their allotted
parish within a County: births marriages, deaths,
parish registers, extracts of Wills, marriage
licences, trade directories, poll books, census
records, details of local history - every imaginable
subject. But, as well as information already in
the public domain, there are many "personal
histories", which are deposited by individuals
or families and so they are not available from any
other source.
Anyone can deposit their family history no matter
how small; one priceless family history is
embroidered! Such records are in the Document
Collection in document boxes. Some will contain
just a few scraps of paper, others are a positive
treasure trove.
Items within the Closed Access Area are being
fiched - unbelievably these valuable documents have
been known to 'walk', indeed, fiches also 'walk' but
at least these can be replaced. Just
occasionally when a family history is deposited, a
search of the papers reveals an item already marked
with an SoG stamp!!! Also in this part of
the Library are stored all the Rolls of Pedigrees -
shelf upon shelf of rolls of papers, some many yards
in length.
School records, especially Public Schools,
University papers, Trinity House documents, Army
Regimental histories, trades, medicine, heraldic
collections, religious details and so the lists go on.
There is an Overseas Collection where, for instance,
Australian/New Zealand births, marriages and deaths
up to 1900 and Wills up to 1980 can be found.
It is impossible to mention everything available for
inspection and use in the SoG Library - it is a
veritable treasure house.
A new edition of the booklet "Using the SoG
Library" will be available after refurbishment
since many of the sections will be moved to a
different floor. There is a Common Room with
tea/coffee facilities and print-outs from the many
film readers can be made for a small charge.
Whilst scanning of original documents is strictly
forbidden, photography of certain items is allowed
providing no physical contact is made. Every
new acquisition is being fiched to avoid theft and
books are being tagged which is a sad reflection on
our times.
Free tours of the Library are held at 11.15am on
alternate Saturdays (tel. 020 7250 0291) and
the SoG publications on sale in the Bookshop can be
purchased on-line. As access to many of the
indexes and unique collections of source documents
becomes available on-line it means the Library is
accessible to a far wider audience and not restricted
to physically visiting the premises in London.
Meanwhile, the SoG Library is well worth a visit
or two - for general enquiries telephone 020
7251 8799.
