Over 500 items have been added to the library
shelves in the Research Centre since it opened in May.
Some have been bought by the Society, mainly at the
Federation Conference in April, May's Family History
Fair in London and a visit we made to the York Family
History Fair in June. However, many kind members have
made donations, some anonymously. We are particularly
grateful to Mr and Mrs Millichamp, and the widow of
Arthur Meen. We maintain a record of all donations
and bookplates usually indicate the generosity of
members, so new books continue to be very welcome.
Our trip to the York Fair also serves to emphasize
that the library attempts to cover the whole of
Britain, as well as containing many items from
overseas. We were able to fill in many of the gaps in
our collection of indexes of the Yorkshire 1851
Census, particularly in the Huddersfield and
Wakefield areas. The coverage of Lancashire (especially
Liverpool), County Durham, Northumberland,
Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Suffolk and Jersey has
also been improved.
The Millichamp donation made important additions
to our collection of directories. We can now boast a
comprehensive collection of both Who was Who, and
Who's Who as well as other biographical dictionaries.
Another growth area has been school registers,
including those for Clifton, Aldenham, Bradfield,
Fettes, Denstone, Repton, Sedburgh, Rugby, Leys,
Keble, Highgate, Harrow, Haileybury, Malvern,
Shrewsbury, Radley, Newcastle Royal Grammar School
and Marlborough. If you don't find your ancestors
there you may have better luck with the Wiltshire
Quarter Sessions and Assizes for 1736 - another
purchase at the Family History Fair.
There have been only 26 additions to the library
that are specific to Berkshire, a lower proportion
than usual. Notable additions include: The Story of
Wesleyan Methodism in Sandhurst, Berkshire Machine
Breakers, The Second book of Wargrave and the 1891
Census Returns for parts of St Lawrence and St Giles
parishes in Reading, together with Arborfield Cross (part),
Broad Hinton, Earley, Hare Hatch, Hurst, Kiln Green,
King Street, Knowle Hill (part), Ruscombe, Twyford,
Merry Hill Green, Newland, Sandford, Sindlesham,
Sonning, Wargrave, Whistley, Whistley Green,Winnersh
and Woodley.
Unfortunately, duplications do occur. Often a new
edition supersedes an earlier edition, while some
areas are more comprehensively covered in another
book. We have now built up a stock of these, and
after offering them to the various branch libraries,
they will be made available for sale to our members.
I'm very pleased with the progress our group of
computers has made. With the help of Roger Finbow, we
have been able to link the computers to allow them to
share the laser printer, and more importantly, a
central disk drive containing the information from
the 1881 census index, as well as both the British
and North American Vital Listings - nearly 40 CD-ROMs
in all. The 1881 index is now much easier to use as
there is no need to swap CDs. An excellent reason for
visiting the Research Centre.
