Society of Genealogists - Library (Middle Library)

The Middle Library

Where did my ancestors live?

Introduction

If you have traced your family back to the commencement of Civil Registration and through the Census Returns at the Public Record Office you will probably know the parish in which the family lived just prior to 1837.

A set of county maps showing the various parishes in England, Wales and Scotland is kept at the Enquiry Desk in this room. Reduced versions of these maps also appear in The Phillimore atlas and index of parish registers ed. by C.R. Humphery-Smith (1995) on the Reference Shelves. Gazetteers listing most places in the British Isles and giving general details about them will be found on the Text Book shelves and by the Library Catalogue.

On this floor the English counties are arranged in alphabetical order from Bedfordshire to Yorkshire, followed by Scotland, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The English counties are those which existed in 1837 and all London south of the River Thames thus falls in either Kent or Surrey.

The Library Catalogue

To discover what the Society has on a particular area or parish you will need to consult the Library OPAC Terminal.

The catalogue has six main sections for each county:

General; Local; Registers; Monumental Inscriptions; Censuses; Lists

Instructions on how to search the Library OPAC are available at each terminal. Each of the books in the six sections is given a shelf-mark (e.g. CO/R 24, meaning Cornwall Register number 24). That number appears at the on the screen at the end of the citation. Some very large folio county histories are to be found by the Reference Shelves. If the book cannot be found on the appropriate shelves, ask at the Enquiry Desk: it may be on loan.

If the catalogue entry says "apply to Library staff" or "Middle Library enquiry counter", fill in one of the forms provided on top of the catalogue and take it to the enquiry desk, quoting shelf number or format, for microfiche & microfilm go to the Lower Library Counter.

If reference commences MF (microfilm) note the number beside the letters, e.g. MF 630. The films are filed by number in the Lower Library and you may take the film and read it on one of the machines provided.

The six sections of the Library Catalogue are as follows:

General: Here are listed in subject order items which relate to the whole county, e.g. Bibliographies, Clergy, Histories, Maps, Newspapers, Place Names, Record Office Guides, Visitations and Wills.
Local: Here are listed in A-Z order of place any local histories, church guides or other material on individual places held by the Society. Works which cover the whole county will be found in the 'General' section mentioned above under 'Guides', 'Topography' or 'History'.
Registers: The Society has the largest collection of copies of registers in the country, including an almost complete series of all that have ever been printed and hundreds in typescript and manuscript. These copies are found here on the appropriate county shelves. The parishes and dates covered (the earliest being 1538 and the latest generally 1837 though some may continue into this century) are listed in this section of the Library Catalogue. This should always be consulted as some transcripts remain unbound and application to see them must be made to the Library staff. Many are on film or fiche, but all are listed in the Library Catalogue. There is also a published catalogue County Sources in the Library of the Society of Genealogists (New editions in process of Publication). The information contained in this publication is available on this web site.
For the two main consolidated indexes of entries in parish registers see Boyd's Marriage Index in the Upper Library and the International Genealogical Index in the Lower Library (1992 edition on fiche, most recent edition on CD-ROM).
Monumental Inscriptions: The inscriptions on the tombstones in a large number of churchyards have been copied and are available on the County Shelves. All are listed in this section of the Library Catalogue under the parishes involved. There is also a published catalogue Monumental inscriptions in the library of the Society of Genealogists (currently out of print pending revision).
There is also a group of general books about inscriptions and brasses in the Upper Library.
Censuses: The Society holds microfilm copies of some census returns for England and Wales 1841-1861 and a few for Scotland; and has an expanding collection of indexes to the names in census returns. These are normally placed on the appropriate county shelves, but some recent accessions are on microfiche and application should be made to the Lower Library staff. Fiche of the 1881 Census are in the Lower Library. All are listed in this section of the Library Catalogue. There is also a published catalogue Census indexes in the library of the Society of Genealogists (1997).
Lists: These are lists of people living in the various counties at different times. They are mostly Directories and Poll Books. Trade directories have been published regularly for many provincial towns from the 1770s onwards and may contain alphabetical, classified and street lists. Similar national and county directories exist from the 1780s and grow in detail from the 1840s. The Society's large collection is listed in chronological order in this section of the Catalogue. They are generally to be found on the appropriate county shelves, but those covering more than one county are arranged in chronological order in the Upper Library, and many have been published on microfiche. Also listed in this section of the Catalogue is the Society's extensive collection of Poll Books showing the names of those who voted at Parliamentary elections between 1694 and 1832 and some later elections. Again they are to be found on the appropriate county shelves. There is a published catalogue Directories and poll books, including almanacs and electoral rolls, in the library of the Society of Genealogists (1995).

Scotland

The Society's collection of printed books on Scotland is arranged and catalogued as described above. It includes printed indexes of all the Scottish Commissariot Court Wills 1514-1800; some calendars 1800-23 are on microfilm (Lower Library). The following major collections are elsewhere in the building:

General Register Office: The Society has microfilm copies (in the Lower Library) of the indexes of births, marriages and deaths for Scotland from 1855 to 1920 as well as of the actual register entries for the year 1855 only.
Scottish Old Parochial Registers: In addition to the International Genealogical Index for Scotland there are microfiche indexes (in the Lower Library) to all the births or baptisms and marriages 1553-1854 in all the Old Parochial Registers for Scotland. These are arranged by county.
Macleod Collection (Lower Libary). This is a large and valuable collection of papers on Scottish families from original sources, compiled by the professional record searchers John and Walter Macleod. The families involved are included in the Index of Pedigrees in Special Collections in the Lower Library.

Ireland

Irish material is arranged and catalogued as described above. It includes an unusual collection of Dublin directories 1738-1846, Some Irish lists by Captain G S Carey, a microfilm of the abstracts of destroyed Irish Prerogative Court wills, 1536-1800, made by Sir William Betham, abstracts of wills made by W J Welply and indexes to Griffith's valuations 1848-64 and the Tithe applotment books c1823-38.

The collection is described in Sources for Irish genealogy in the library of the Society of Genealogists by A J Camp (1998).

Local Collections

The Society has a number of special manuscript collections resulting from the labour of former members in some particular area. The pedigrees in many of these are indexed in the Card Index of Pedigrees in Deposited Collections in the Lower Library. Some of the principal ones are:

Berkshire: Snell Collection (on Berkshire shelves- Middle Library). A large and well-indexed collection on Berkshire families, compiled by F S Snell. It includes abstracts of all the Berkshire wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury 1391-1737.
Cornwall: Rogers Collection (available in Lower Library on microfilm, Nos. 526-528). A collection of pedigrees of Cornish families compiled by J P Rogers, together with an index. Many Cornish pedigrees by J.R.M. Glencross are filed in the Document Collection in the Lower Library with the Card Index which he maintained.
London: Inhabitants of London (near the London shelves). Compiled by Percival Boyd, the collection attempts to gather on one sheet the dates of birth and death, residence and company of any given citizen of London, with the names of his parents, his marriage or marriages and his children with their marriages, and a reference to his will. It is particularly useful for sixteenth and seventeenth century families having London connections. 60,000 people are recorded in the red volumes and indexed in the blue ones.
London: Boyd's London Burials (on the London shelves), contains about 250,000 adult male burials in the London area, 1538-1853.
Norfolk: Campling Collection (available in Lower Library on microfilm, Nos. 953-962). A collection of pedigrees of Norfolk and Suffolk families, wills and marriage licences, compiled by Arthur Campling.

There are fuller details of some of these and other special collections at the Society in the Genealogists' Magazine for June 1961.