Society of Genealogists - Library (Upper Floor)

The Upper Library

What did my ancestors do?

Family Histories In Book Form

Consult the Library Catalogue Computers. Look for the surname you are investigating in the drawers labelled 'Family History'. The size and type of binding of the books are given on the catalogue cards and should be noted. The books may be family histories published for general circulation, privately printed, or typescript or manuscript. They are filed alphabetically by the surname of the family the book is about. Many contain more than one family history and cross-references to these will only be found by consulting the Catalogue. If the reference is to 'Family History Tracts' note the volume number; these are the small pamphlets bound into yellow volumes after the main sequence.

Places

Topographical collection documents which relate to several persons or families in some particular place are filed in envelopes under the name of the place and arranged in alphabetical order by counties.

Printed Pedigrees

Apart from printed family histories many pedigrees have appeared in print. On the Reference Shelves you will find three volumes: The genealogist's guide by G W Marshall (1903, reprinted 1967), A genealogical guide by J B Whitmore (1953) and The genealogist's guide by Geoffrey B Barrow (1977). Together these volumes index most pedigrees of more than three generations which have appeared in print. Look up the surname in each of these. In most cases you will find a number of pedigrees mentioned in various books, many of which are in the Society's library.

They are most likely to be found in one or more of the following categories:

County or Parish Histories. These are in the Middle Library.
County Periodicals such as the proceedings of local archaeological societies will be found at the end of each county in the Middle Library.
Genealogical Periodicals of which the best known were Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica and The Genealogist. The series of pedigrees published as The Visitation of England and Wales by H.H. Howard and F A Crisp is to be found below Boyd's Marriage Index. Sets of Notes and Queries and The Gentleman's Magazine are to be found in the Middle Library.
The Peerages and Baronetages and Burke's Landed Gentry. These are in the Upper Library.
Heralds' Visitations. These are pedigrees of people who had a right to Arms, collected by the officers of the College of Arms between 1530 and 1687, and printed from their records or from early 'improved' copies of them. You will find them as a rule amongst the Harleian Society's volumes in the Upper Library. If the volumes you need are published by some other body, they will be in the Middle Library, on the shelves of the county concerned. They are listed in the Library Catalogue, in the subdivision of each county called 'General' under 'Visitations'.

The pedigrees in all these works are indexed in the three volumes by Marshall, Whitmore and Barrow mentioned above. Additional references to pedigrees of Scottish and Irish families may be found in Scottish family history by Margaret Stuart (1930) and its continuation Scottish family histories by J.P.S. Ferguson (1986)[SC/G122] and in Bibliography of Irish family history and genealogy by Brian de Breffny (1974) [Quick ref.] and Bibliography of Irish family history by E. MacLysaght (1982) [Apply to staff].

Surnames

If you are interested in the meaning or origin of your surname there is a collection of books on the subject in the Middle Library Lobby. The best is P H Reaney, A Dictionary of English Surnames (1991)[TB/SUR]. Many names have gone through some alteration over the centuries; those interested in the subject should trace their family back step by step to obtain their name's earliest forms before coming to conclusions from such books, many of which are highly suspect.

Members' Interests

The names of some of the families on which members of the Society are working may be determined from the Card Index of Members' Interests in the Upper Library. Members are also encouraged to file 'Birth Briefs' showing their 16 great-great-grandparents which are then bound. There are indexes to the surnames on the Upper Library enquiry counter.

Other Interests

The interests of other genealogists may be found listed in the National genealogical directory published annually between 1979 and 1993, in the Genealogical research directory published annually since 1982, in the British Isles genealogical register (BIG-R) published on microfiche by the Federation of Family History Societies (1994 and 1997) and in the Family Registry published on microfiche by the Genealogical Society of Utah, all available at the Enquiry Desk in the Lower Library. The Register of the Guild of One Name Studies should be consulted.

The following groups of records follow each other after the Family History Shelves:

Schools: Here is an extensive collection of registers of scholars, mostly at public schools. These often include full biographical details and are particularly useful for tracing the professional classes. The collection is in alphabetical order and is listed in School, university and college registers and histories in the library of the Society of Genealogists (2nd edn 1996), which has an index showing which schools fall in which counties.
Universities The registers of universities and their colleges in alphabetical order include Aberdeen (1495-1970), Cambridge (earliest times to 1965), Dublin (1593-1860), Edinburgh (1583-1888), Glasgow (1728-1858), Oxford (earliest times to 1894) and St Andrews (1413-1579, 1747-1897), i.e. all the ancient British universities. (Published catalogue - see above). Schools and Universities references may be found using the OPAC.
Army: Here Dalton's English army lists and commission registers 1661-1714 is followed by a run of the annual Army List 1740-1950 and post 1950 on application (giving details of officers, but not of other ranks) and a group of Regimental histories and medal rolls. In the Lower Library there is also Soldiers died in the Great War (CD-ROM).
Navy Here is a run of the annual Navy List 1756-1950 and post 1950 on application (officers only), a complete list of the Commissioned sea officers of the Royal Navy 1660-1815 published by the National Maritime Museum and the naval biographical dictionaries compiled by Charnock (all officers 1660-1794), Marshall (all officers in the List 1823-35) and O'Byrne (all officers in the List 1845 and all alive in 1849). Lloyd's (Merchant) Captains' Register 1869 is on the Professions Shelves (see below) and on microfiche.
Trinity House Petitions Microfilms of the original petitions from seafaring men and their dependants asking for assistance to be paid out of the charitable funds administered by Trinity House, 1750-1890 (Film nos. 3217-3280) Lower Library. They are rich in biographical material. There is a published calendar (1987) in the Middle Library. For merchant and Royal Navy sources see the published catalogue Maritime Sources in the library of the Society of Genealogists (1997)
Air Force Here are some Air Force Lists etc.
Apprentices Of Great Britain The indentures of those apprenticed were private documents which have usually not survived. However, they were centrally registered in the period 1710-1810 when a tax was placed on them. The resulting records at the Public Record Office for the whole of the British Isles have been indexed by the Society 1710-1774 in two alphabetical series, 1710-1762 and 1762-1774. They usually give the name of the father of the apprentice up to about 1750, the name and trade of the master and the amount paid. The preface in volume 1 gives details of the system followed, the apparently double Christian names being firstly that of the child and secondly that of his father or mother. There are separate indexes to the masters.
The above-mentioned tax did not apply to apprenticeships paid for by parish and public charities and the series contains few borough or city company apprentices, the records of which may well survive elsewhere. The Society has copies of a few of these and they are indexed in the Library Catalogue under the places involved in the local sections for each County. There is a special section for London City Companies in the London section of the Catalogue.
The Society also possesses a collection of miscellaneous original apprenticeship indentures 1641-1888. A microfilm copy of them is available in the Lower Library (Film nos. 3281-84) and their yellow bound index is on the Apprentice Shelves.

Professions

Material on many professions and related biographical dictionaries are arranged in alphabetical order of occupation. The groupings include, for example, architects, civil servants, clockmakers, dentists, furniture makers, gun makers, musicians, politicians, sculptors, watchmakers etc. Amongst them are:

Doctors Eighteenth century medics, runs of the Medical Directory (from 1845) and Medical Register (complete from 1859) and Munk's Roll of the Royal College of Physicians 1518-1925.
Lawyers The Law List, 1813-1973, showing Barristers and Solicitors with Foster's Men at the Bar giving details of all Barristers in 1885, and the admission registers of Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn and the Middle Temple (but not of the Inner Temple).
Teachers Registration council registers 1902-48 (on application to staff).

NB Post 1950 professional registers are in store. Apply for them in the Middle Library.

The remainder of the UPPER LIBRARY contains the following collections:

Monumental Inscriptions

A group of general books about inscriptions and brasses, including A list of monumental brasses in the British Isles by Mill Stephenson (1926 and 1938).

Heraldry

This is a collection of standard works on heraldry. Arms do not appertain to a surname, but to individuals, and a particular coat of arms and crest may only be used by the direct descendants in the male line of the individual to whom they were first granted or allowed by the appropriate heraldic authority (in England, the College of Arms).

Burke's General armory (1885, reprinted 1962), unofficial, often inaccurate and incomplete, describes the arms attributed to most British families. Details of some later families who used arms may be found in the various editions (last 1926) of A C Fox-Davies, Armorial families. Papworth's Ordinary of British armorials (1874, reprinted 1961) identifies the families from a description (or blazon) of the arms. For the terms of blazonry see any edition of Boutell's Heraldry or A C Fox-Davies, Complete guide to heraldry. The most complete list of crests is Fairbairn's Book of crests (1905) and of mottoes is C N Elvin's Handbook of mottoes (1860, reprinted 1963). There is no published official list of the families which have been granted arms in England and Wales, but many are listed in the Harleian Society volumes of Grantees of Arms before 1898 (vols. 66-68). For the pedigrees of armigerous families recorded by the Heralds between 1530 and 1687, see above. An extensive collection of heraldic bookplates is available on microfilm (Nos. 3285-94).

Boyd's Marriage Index

There are 533 typescript volumes of the Marriage Index compiled under the direction of the late Percival Boyd. It relates to England (with only a few entries from elsewhere), 1538-1837, the entries being taken from transcribed parish registers, including nearly all those printed by Phillimore & Co. Ltd. It is divided into counties in periods of 25 years. In most counties there are separate indexes for men and women, but in some counties these are indexed together or indexes to the women were not made. Those counties which have separate volumes for each period are Cambridge, Cornwall, Cumberland (1601-1700 only), Derby, Devon, Durham, Essex, Gloucester, Lancashire, London and Middlesex, Norfolk, Northumberland, Shropshire, Somerset, Suffolk and Yorkshire. These are generally bound in green. Additional marriages from these counties and from the remainder of England are indexed into two miscellaneous series also sub-divided into periods (bound in red and blue). These include some marriage licences and the marriage entries in The Gentleman's Magazine for 1731-1762. In no case does the Index fully cover any English county. Some are covered better than others. Altogether it contains about seven million entries and has about a twelve per cent coverage before 1837. The parishes involved are included on the OPAC and are available with a general explanation of the system and the phonetic spelling adopted in A list of parishes in Boyd's Marriage Index (1994). A complete marriage index for Oxfordshire 1538-1837 is available on microfiche, together with a microfiche copy of the whole of Boyd's Marriage Index in the Lower Library.

Like the International Genealogical Index this index may be used simply to discover the date or place of a marriage and the parish register in which further details of the entry may be found, or to estimate how frequently a particular surname or Christian name occurs either in general or in a particular area. It may be particularly valuable in the tracing of an emigrant who married in this country before emigrating, but whose place of origin is not known.

Marriage Licences

Licences for marriages were issued by local ecclesiastical authorities and may give the ages of the parties and other details. Indexes to the licences which cover more than one county are found here. Those continuing at least into the eighteenth century include Exeter (for Devon and Cornwall), much of Norfolk and Suffolk, London, Oxfordshire and Yorkshire. Those for Hampshire (vols. 35-36) and the Archdeaconry of Sudbury in Suffolk (vols. 69-72) are printed in the Harleian Society series. Some others (e.g. Beds, Berks, Essex, Herts, Kent, Surrey and Sussex) are on the appropriate county shelves and those for London 1700-1780 are in the Great Card Index. The Society has microfilm copies of the marriage allegations made to the Faculty Office 1715-1851 and Vicar-General 1660-1851 in the Lower Library. The calendars are also on film: Faculty Office 1706-1845 and Vicar-General 1706-1839, but these are being superseded by our own published indexes. (Vicar-General 1694-1850 on fiche and in hard copy is available to date.) See also On-line search facilities using the computers with access to English Origins in the Lower Library. All licenses are listed at the beginning of the parish register sections under each county in the Library OPAC and the Society has published a catalogue of them (1991).

Directories

Here, in date order, directories covering several counties are shelved.

Harleian Society

The Harleian Society's publications include marriage licence indexes and heralds' visitations. Some are fragile and have been microfiched (Lower Library).

Wills

Before 1858 wills were proved in any one of about 300 local ecclesiastical courts. The original wills are kept at county record offices or, in the case of the main court, the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, at the Public Record Office in London. Apart from many abstracts of wills the Society has a unique collection of indexes to these wills. With their aid you can estimate whether a visit to a county record office will be worthwhile. Alternatively, you could employ a local searcher or send for photocopies.

Here is a group of these indexes, covering many regional courts. Others are in the British Record Society Index Library series. Some are on the appropriate County shelves (Middle Library). Numerous others, covering most of England and Wales filling in gaps and continuing the above are on microfilm and microfiche (Lower Library. They are all listed in the Library Catalogue under 'Wills' in the 'General Section' under each County, and are published in Will indexes and other probate material in the Library of the Society of Genealogists (1996).

Prerogative Court of Canterbury The indexes for the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (1383-1629, 1653-1660, 1671-1700) are printed by the Index Library and the two gaps (1630-52, 1661-70) are filled by volumes on the 'Wills Shelves', where there is also an index for the period 1750-1800. The Society does not have any index for the period 1801-1852. For !701-1749 and 1804-37 & other odd years consult these are available of Fiche or microfilm in the Lower Library. Also available by accessing the English Origins on-line facilities in the Lower Library.
Prerogative Court of York The wills proved in the Prerogative Court of York 1389-1688 are published in the Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series on the Yorkshire shelves and microfilms continue them to 1858.
Bank of England Wills This series of 176 volumes, covering the period 1717-1845, contains will extracts for those with monies in the public funds. The volumes also contain details of stockholders who went bankrupt or were declared lunatics. An Index for the period 1807-45 is on the desk. See also Microfilm & English Origins access in the Lower Library
Estate Duty Will Indexes 1793-1857 are on microfilm & are available from English Origins access in the Lower Library and are thought to be fairly complete for wills 1812-57.
Principal Probate Registry The Society is acquiring microfilms (Lower Library) of the General Calendars of Grants of Probate and Administration, 1858-1930. Surnames commencing A-V only are available so far.

Royalty

This section includes the Almanach de Gotha as well as material on the British Royal Family.

Peerages

In this section are found the lineages of all peers and baronets (in Burke's Peerage, Extinct Peerage and Extinct Baronetcies and in Pine's New Extinct Peerage), of all peers and baronets created (in The Complete Peerage, The Scots Peerage and The Complete Baronetage), and of most knights before 1900 (in Shaw's Knights of England).

Biography

Here are runs of Edward Walford's County Families (1860-1920), Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes (from 1880). Who's Who 1996, Who Was Who and The Dictionary of National Biography are on CD-ROM at the Lower Library enquiry counter.

Religious Denominations & Jews

Church of England Here is a run of Crockford's annual Clerical Directory from 1858 and other Clergy Lists 1829, 1841 and 1850 onwards, all giving details of Church of England clergy, with Foster's Index Ecclesiasticus 1800-1840.
Nonconformists The registers of most nonconformist denominations in England before 1837 are at the Public Record Office. There is a list of them which is kept at the enquiry desk in the Middle Library. Any copies that the Society has are on the appropriate county shelves and they are listed in the published catalogue of parish registers and in the parish register sections of the Library Catalogue under each county. Most are included on the International Genealogical Index. There is a small collection of material on nonconformists (Baptists, Congregationalists, Quakers, Wesleyans) including some lists of ministers (mainly Wesleyan). The volumes of Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae giving details of the ministers of the Church of Scotland are on the Scottish shelves.
Quakers The material includes an incomplete run of the Annual Monitor 1822-1917 and the Quaker Digest registers to 1837 on microfilm (Lower Library)(reels 3363-3394).
Roman Catholics Catholic Record Society publications are on these shelves with other material about Catholics including the standard list of surviving registers, Gandy's Catholic missions and registers 1700-1880.
Huguenots The collection includes a set of the Huguenot Society Proceedings and Registers. They include lists of those naturalised in England before 1800. Huguenot pedigrees on microfilm (Lower Library) may be found in the Special Collections catalogue.
Jews This collection includes the publications of the Jewish Historical Society. Jewish material elsewhere in the library includes Special Collections such as the Colyer-Fergusson pedigrees on microfilm and the Hyamson collection of pedigrees on microfiche both in the Lower Library.

Overseas & Emigration

A collection of material relating to most foreign countries and a larger collection on the Commonwealth and America, with many periodicals from their genealogical societies. [The card catalogue for this material is also in the Upper Library] or consult the Library OPAC.

In searching for British ancestry all possible information about the original emigrant should first be obtained from the country to which he went, not only from published sources but from every possible contemporary source, as unless his exact place of origin in this country can be determined from those sources it is unlikely that it will be found in Britain.

The copies of registers of places abroad held by the Society are listed at the end of its published catalogue of parish registers, and the copies of inscriptions in foreign cemeteries are listed in Part Two of the published catalogue.

The International Genealogical Index for most countries in the world (alphabetically by country) on microfilm and including a section of events 'At sea' should not be overlooked. The most recent edition is on CD-ROM in the Lower Library.

America
Regular series of passenger lists from and to England for any period before the early nineteenth century almost certainly never existed. Stray lists for odd ships and lists of persons going abroad for particular reasons (e.g. as apprentices, ministers, convicts) are, however, extant in various places. Those relating to persons going from the British Isles to America have mostly been printed and the books containing these lists are given in detail in P W Filby, Passenger and immigration lists bibliography 1538-1900: being a guide to published lists of arrivals in the United States and Canada (2nd edn. 1988). Many of them are to be found in the collection on these shelves. Over three million names from all these lists are given in P W Filby and M K Meyer, Passenger and immigration lists index: a guide to published arrival records of about 750,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada ... (3 vols 1981; with annual supplements). Other works on the American shelves include The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy, Hinshaw's Encyclopaedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Germans to America (1850 onward) and Italians to America (1880 onward).
Australia, Canada, New Zealand
The collections for these countries are less extensive, but include some useful reference material, biographical dictionaries, early directories, lists of settlers, and inscriptions. Microfiche indexes to the births, deaths and marriages in Australia (except Tasmania) and New Zealand from the earliest times up to about 1900 are available in the Lower Library, together with lists of the wills proved in Victoria to 1899 and in New South Wales to 1980. Births, marriages and deaths in Tasmania 1806-99 are on CD-ROM in the Lower Library. There is a copy of the 1828 Census of New South Wales and of the 1882 Return of Freeholders in New Zealand.
India
For India there is a good run of the East India Register and the Indian Army List and other material, including many copies of monumental inscriptions. An extensive card index of British people in India including many marriages there, compiled by the late Col. H K Percy Smith is to be found in the Upper Library. The collection is described in Sources for Anglo-Indian genealogy in the library of the Society of Genealogists by N C Taylor (1990).
West Indies
Apart from the books here the Society also possesses the Smith Collection (available on microfilm, Nos. 963-969). These are the working notes of a professional searcher, Mrs. V T C Smith, in 43 volumes, mainly relating to the West Indies, but containing other material. Some of the volumes are indexed into the Great Card Index[microfilm in the Lower Library. She worked for the historian of Antigua, V L Oliver, whose papers are filed in the Document Collection (Lower Library) under the surnames involved.

Periodicals

The Genealogists' Magazine, the journal of the Society, and Family Tree Magazine are in the Upper Library, together with many other general genealogical periodicals. Palmer's Index to The Times 1790-1905 is on CD-ROM at the Lower Library Counter.

State Papers

Here are shelved the publications of the Selden, Pipe Roll and List and Index Societies, PRO guides, the Return of owners of land 1873 and an index to divorces published in the Times 1788-1910. There is also a manuscript index to those who paid the Male Servants Tax 1780.

Card Indexes

Of the many miscellaneous card indexes also housed in this room the chief ones are the following:

Dwelly Index

West Country material.

Whitehead Index

East Anglian references.

Fawcett Index

Clergy and North Country families.

Periodicals

County periodicals such as the proceedings of local record societies will be found on the shelves at the end of each county, e.g. the publications of the Surtees Society are under Durham. These periodicals are always followed by the journals of the various local family history societies.