Society of Genealogists - Library (Lower Library)

The Lower Library

Where do I start?

Microfilm, microfiche and CD-ROM material listed in the Library Catalogue is available here. The Document Collection and Special Collection are now located here. Some microfiche/CD-ROM items are available only on application to the Library staff. Machines are available for taking copies from both microfiche and microfilm and printing from some CD-ROM. Those requiring microfilm readers on Saturdays are advised to book in advance by telephone. Access by computer terminal to the The Origins Network web site is also located here.

The International Genealogical Index (IGI)

Entries in parish registers were not originally centrally indexed, but in the late 1970s the Genealogical Society of Utah began to make available on microfiche a computerised index to many millions of baptisms and marriages throughout the world. It has gone through several editions and the Society possesses the most recent available on CD-ROM.

The old (1992) microfiche edition has a section for each county in Britain, arranged by surname, given name and date. No area is completely covered by the Index. A list of the parishes included (as at 1988), Parish and Vital Records Listings is available on microfiche. In every case, the entries should be checked in the original registers.

Bernau's Index

A microfilm collection of about four and a half million slips (sorted by surname only) relating to unindexed material in the Public Record Office, mainly Chancery and Exchequer Court Depositions and Proceedings, compiled by C A Bernau is in the Microfilm Room. Some further details of this Index (which includes every litigant in Chancery between 1714 and 1758) appeared in the Genealogists' Magazine, vol.18, pp. 129-131 and a user's guide is provided near the Index. There is a published guide How to use the Bernau index (1996).

General Register Office Indexes

Lower Library has binders containing microfiche copies of the birth, marriage and death indexes for England and Wales, 1837-1920. The fiche indexes to overseas and military births, marriages and deaths are available on application to staff in the Middle Library.

The Great Card Index - Film

This contains much miscellaneous data, sorted under surnames and subdivided under Christian names. There are several million slips. Entries from parish registers, genealogical works, marriage licences (including those for London 1700-1780), monumental inscriptions, references to Chancery Proceedings, have all been sorted in. Variants of surnames are grouped together and cross-referenced; the head card will show all the variants thus consolidated. There are very few surnames which are not represented in some way and the Index is generally a fair guide to their distribution. Some sections have been typed and the head card under the appropriate surname then gives a reference to the green bound volumes nearby.[This description needs to be updated following the filming of the GCI]

Document Collection

The Document Collection in the Lower Library. Any loose unbound family history material given to the Society is filed here in alphabetical order of surname in envelopes in box files. There is a typescript list of all the names for which there is material (about 11,000) on the desk. The envelope may contain a complete pedigree, a copy of a monumental inscription, a will abstract or an original probate copy, an original deed, or personal letters of genealogical interest.

Material acquired since 1992 has been microfiched and the fiche are available in the Lower Library. There will be a sheet in the document box to indicate this.

If you wish to get in touch with others working on the same family you are advised to present an outline pedigree of the family, however incomplete, bearing your name and address, to the Society. Its receipt will be mentioned in the Genealogists' Magazine and it will be placed in this Document Collection for all future searchers to see.

Special Collections

The card index of Pedigrees in Deposited Collections is in the Lower Library. This contains references to large roll pedigrees (apply to the Lower Library staff) and to other special collections on particular surnames. The majority of the special collections are in the Lower Library with the Document Collection and some are on microfilm or microfiche.