See our Membership page for details of how to join the Society.

All members receive four quarterly issues of our journal - the Berkshire Family Historian - which contains news, articles, information and help on family history research in Berkshire and elsewhere.

Members have access to our Berkshire Name Search database containing over 100,000 names. Searches can be made using the Berkshire Name Search service - see our Postal Research Services.

The society provides Postal Research Services which include the provision of information from the 1851, 1861(partial), 1871 and 1881 censuses, burial index, marriage index, the Berkshire Name Search and other sources.

A database of Members Name Interests is maintained from information submitted by Members. This records names, localities and periods being researched. There is a separate Birth Brief system showing their ancestors. The Members Interests Name Index and the Birth Briefs Name Index are available on-line.

Letters and emails from members of the public interested in a particular name will be forwarded to members.

Members interests are published in the Society Journal as they are received.

A link to members personal Family History Web-sites together with a list of the main surnames which appear can be included on, this, the Society's web site.

This discussion group enables members of the BerksFHS to exchange information on any Family History or Computer topic of current interest. See Discussion List details.

The Society has a Bookshop in the Research Centre at Yeomanry House, Reading which offers a wide selection of Family History publications, magazines and guides. We are now making new publications available on CD. A Bookstall is available at some Branch Meetings.

All items in our Bookshop can be ordered by post, and nearly all can be ordered online from the web site using a debit or credit card. You can only use your debit or credit when ordering from the web site.

Members have free access to our extensive Reference Library, indexes, periodicals and other Family History literature in our Research Centre in Reading. It is located in Yeomanry House (the same building as the Reading Registrar) off Castle Hill near to the centre of Reading and next door to the Berkshire Record Office.

Magazines and Journals published by other Family History societies are available for loan by members at Branch Meetings.

A Member's Handbook is supplied to new members. This includes a guide to the Society and its activities and lists the publications available from the Society.

Each of the 6 branches - Bracknell and Wokingham, Computer Branch (Woodley), Newbury, Reading, Vale of White Horse (Abingdon) and Windsor, Slough & Maidenhead - hold regular monthly meetings. There are other activities at the Research Centre.