Society of Genealogists - Members' Area

Members’ Area - What’s Available

The following databases are available in the members’s Area

Genealogists Magazine

PDF images of the first 4 volumes of the Society’s magazine, together with images of its contemporary index.

Polish Refugee subsistence and genealogical data

Entries from a card index compiled by Antoni and Stella Szachnowski, members of the Catholic Family History Society and donated to the Society of Genealogists in November 1999. The original slips, now divided into two indexes, relate to the names of Poles ‘primarily before 1939” found in a number of sources including, amongst others no doubt, the following:

Polish Subsistence: Parliamentary Papers “Russia, Poland & Serbia miscellaneous papers 1803-1854” (comprising returns of Polish refugees receiving subsistence or any assistance from the Grant voted by Parliament from 1838-1841.)
Polish Genealogy: entries from the registers of the Chapel of the Virgin Mary of Czestochowa, Diocese of Westminster; London St Peter Apostulate – baptisms; Electoral rolls (St Pancras 1891, Lambeth 1891, St Marylebone 1892, Westminster Borough 1908); 1841 Census Portsea Hants, Polish Refugee Hospital; soldiers from the Polish Army; Naturalisations.

Further correspondence and papers assembled by Mr and Mrs Szachnowski but not indexed in the above can be found in two archives boxes called the Polish Collection held amongst the Society’s Special Collections.

Heritage Index

The Heritage Index was compiled by Meryl Catty and typed up by Mr L A Muriel. It contains records of individuals from a wide range of sources, including the following:

1 PAPER HERITAGE CALALOGUES: These catalogues contain a brief description of papers & documents that were offered up for sale at auction between 1983 and 1987. The original catalogues are held in the Lower Library at the Society of Genealogists and are arranged alphabetically by the name of the auction house offering the item for sale e.g Ash, Black, Cedar & Peel. Within each auction house the documents are given a numerical sequence eg. Ash 1, Ash 2 etc.
2 THE POLICE GAZETTE: Seven issues from the years 1866 to 1882
3 ARIS'S BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE: Covering the years 1824-1826 & 1870-1871. Abbreviated to Aris in this index.
4 CORBETT's WEEKLY REGISTER for 1824
5 THE COURIER for 1814
6 The ENGLISH CHRONICLE for 1805
7 JOHN BULL for 1829
8 THE LIVERPOOL MERCURY for 1813
9 THE LONDON CHRONICLE for 1758, 1759, 1761 & 1790
10 THE MORNING CHRONICLE for 1798-1799
11 THE MORNING STAR for 1856
12 THE SPECTATOR for 1849
13 THE TABLET for 1849
14 THE TRUE BRITON for 1803
15 Entries in the Heritage Index for PHILIP(S) for 1994
16 Parish Apprenticeship Indentures & Bonds for Brightlingsea, Essex
17 Salford Friendly Funeral Society report for 1854-1855
18 Coroner’s Court Inquest into FRANKS/SANDERS, Whitechapel, 1832
19 Removal of Susan CAMPBELL from St.Marylebone 1829
20 COPPING Family Bible 18th to 19th centuries
21 The admission of Thomas WOOLLEY to the Family Manor 1712
22 BAYNES/LEWIS Family Bible 19th century
23 MARRIAGE BANNS, AGREEMENTS & SETTLEMENTS 1654-56
John Mansell, who was a magistrate for Northampton County & the High Sheriff in 1656 & 1657, treated his duties in a very methodical manner. On the certificate of the publication of Banns he noted the date of the marriage and endorsed, signed and numbered it. Those numbered 1 to 100 [Nos. 43, 44, 77, 87 & 88 are missimg] have been preserved and cover 16th February 1654/5 to 17th March 1655/6. A large number relate to marriages of persons from different parishes and in some cases outside Northamptonshire.
24 Other marriage arrangements from a catalogue of items offered for sale in 1930, donated by Mrs. Barbara Kent. These are given the reference 1930CAT in this index.

Wills

Index to Document Collection wills

The Society of Genealogist's surname document collection is housed in the Lower Library. It contains an eclectic mixture of documents that have been given to the Society since its formation in 1911.

This index lists all probate items contained within the surname document collection that have been donated since 1992.

Devon (will abstracts from the Fothergill Collection)

This collection of abstracts of wills and administrations relating to Devon, Cornwall and Somerset people was compiled by Cliff Webb and typed up by Rachel Taylor. The abstracts themselves can be found on the library shelves at DE/G 23 under the title Will Abstracts from the Fothergill Collection at the Society of Genealogists, 1547-1834. The index that appears on the Members’ Area was compiled by Richard Grylls as part of the Devon Wills project and is reproduced with his permission.

The original abstracts were made probably in the early 1900s by Gerald Fothergill (1870-1926), an eminent genealogist and historian who lived in London. It is not clear why he compiled abstracts of sundry Devon wills - perhaps as the result of a commission. He clearly went to Exeter and Taunton to study and abstract the wills, since almost all the wills were proved and kept in one or other of those places. His collection in fact only covers about 12 different surnames. Nonetheless, in view of the destruction of the original wills, its value is enormous.

Wiltshire Wills’ Beneficiaries index

The Wiltshire Wills’ Beneficiaries Index was created by Mary Trace and Pat Wilson and donated to the Society of Genealogists. It records the wills, administrations & other probate records proved between 1800 and 1858 in 21 Peculiar Courts predominately in Wiltshire. However, please note that some of these courts also cover parts of Dorset as the Diocese of Salisbury extended into neighbouring counties.

The index gives the date the will was written and the court in which it was proved. It lists not only the testator but others mentioned in the document. The relationship to the deceased, their place of residence and occupation are also recorded if this information was given in the original document). The index does not contain details of the actual bequests.

A copy of the will can be obtained by contacting Wiltshire Records Office with the court, date written and proved and the Wiltshire Record Office reference.

The LDS film number is given for each court.

Monumental Inscriptions

Whitehead collection of monumental inscriptions

These monumental inscriptions were recorded by the professional genealogist L Haydon Whitehead and donated to the Society in 1985 after his death. They are part of a much larger collection of material compiled by Whitehead which included transcripts of wills, Hearth Tax returns, parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts etc.

The collection focuses on East Anglia, and the greatest number of MI recordings are for Essex (31,000) and Cambridgeshire (12,000). However there are entries for many other English counties (Derbyshire, for example, has more than 6,000). Some of the stones recorded by Whitehead are no longer legible, making the collection particularly important.

At present the Members’ Area includes only an index to the Whitehead MIs, which has been subdivided by county. The full inscriptions can be consulted on cards in the Upper Library, or photocopies ordered through the Society’s Search and Copy Service . However the cards have recently been scanned and it is hoped to include images of them on the Members’ Area in due course.

Cannes MIs (Le Grand Jas cemetery)

This index to the monumental inscriptions of British subjects buried in Le Grand Jas cemetery, Cannes was compiled by Paul Leppard. Photographs of many of the gravestones are available from Cannes Tourist Information

Occupations

Railway workers

When the York Locomotive Shed was cleared out to make way for the National Railway Museum, a large number of London and North Eastern Railway / British Rail Staff Cards were discarded. Those from 1923 to the 1960s, were deposited with the Society of Genealogists in 1999 and have now been cleaned, sorted, indexed and made available for inspection.

The 2846 cards list 2402 employees of London and North Eastern Railway from 1923 until the 1960’s, by which time it had been nationalised and become part of British Rail. Please note that we do not have staff cards for everyone who worked for LNER. Most of those listed are men, except for 134 female cleaners. There is a great diversity of information provided and the cards may contain any of the following:

Name (with title Miss/Mrs if a female cleaner)
Height
Date of birth (many stretching back to the 1880’s)
Date of commencement of employment (many started aged 15 or 16)
Date of leaving employment (careers ranged from a month to 45 years)
Reasons for leaving (often at the obligatory age of sixty or sixty-five)
Depots and stations where employed
Career progression and promotions
Eyesight / medical examinations
Sickness or injuries
Admonishments, punishments, rewards or commendations. These are noted on the reverse of the cards. The latter two are scarce, often being awarded for working during a strike. The former two sometimes cover a whole card, particularly in the case of drivers. Offences include ignoring red light signals and near misses with passing freight trains.

The amount of information varies from employee to employee. Brief casuals often had only their names and dates of coming and going noted, whilst one long-term employee’s card contains a complete record of every piece of uniform issued to him, with size and description. Some families are traceable through several generations, and first cousin relationships are sometimes apparent.

Society volunteers Elizabeth Gray and Alison Ross have been carefully cleaning, boxing and indexing the cards and they can now be consulted in the Lower Library.

NB This online index only indicates those for whom a card exists, it does not give information contained on the cards. If a visit to the library to view the card is not possible a photocopy may be ordered through the Society's Search and Copy service

Surnames

Baptist Magazine index

The Society of Genealogists has in its possession a card catalogue of names extracted from the Baptist Magazine, on which this work is based. It includes several thousand births, marriages and deaths occurring in the magazine from the 18th and 19th centuries (the card draws are labelled 1809-1851 but there are a significant number of entries from outside these years). No indication is given in the index about how comprehensive it is.

A significant number of the entries relate to Baptist ministers, deacons and their families, and many women are listed. Some of the entries are particularly useful genealogically eg. Edward Foster’s father and grandfather are shown, together with their year of birth. Some of the entries do not appear in the RG 4 registers, so this may be the only record of a vital event.

The references at the end of each entry refer to the year of the Baptist Magazine (BM) in which the notice appears. Sometimes (but frustratingly not always) the page number is also given.

A complete set of the Baptist Magazine for 1809 – 1890 (except 1856) is held at Spurgeon’s College (www.spurgeons.ac.uk) in South London. The Angus Library and Dr Williams Library also have good coverage of the title.

Bristol Attorneys Index

Compiled by W J Lyes, this index lists over 1200 solicitors, attorneys, notaries etc who practiced in Bristol before 1899. The information varies from entry to entry but may include an address, year of birth and death, public offices held, whether they were a freeman of the city and their father’s occupation.

Index of Catholic nuns 1598-1914

In the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547) all religious houses of women and men were closed. There was a small revival under Queen Mary (1553-1558) but at her death the few nuns who wished to remain so went abroad.

In 1598 a congregation of specifically English nuns was established in the Spanish Netherlands (modern Belgium). Many more followed and for nearly two hundred years Catholic nuns lived out their lives in the Catholic countries of Europe. Many of their records have been published by the Catholic Record Society and the relevant volumes contain more detailed histories. All these orders were enclosed and the ladies within them lived lives of prayer.

With the advent of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792 most of these convents were expelled. Fortunately they were able to return to England where Catholicism was now legal.

With the great expansion of Catholic numbers in the United Kingdom, and especially of poor urban Catholics from the 1840s, many new Orders came to England from the continent to do active work - mostly teaching or nursing. By 1900 there were over 90 religious orders of Catholic women working in the UK.

In the early 1990s the Catholic Family History Society circulated all the organisations of Catholic religious women working in England to ask about the records of individuals. A great many lists were received and computerised. The following database - listing about 14,000 individuals from about 60 orders - is the result. The Catholic FHS has no further information about the women listed here.

In many cases religious orders had a centralised structure and an archivist for the whole order was able to supply a copy of a complete list. The Carmelites and the Sisters of Mercy, however, had no such central structure. Lists were received from particular houses but not from others.

Note that England, Wales and Scotland, with which this index is concerned, formed a quite separate province from Ireland. This index contains a great many Irish women but they have all joined the English Province, not the Irish Province, of their Order. The cut off date was entry in 1914 so very few women born after about 1895 will be found here. However a very few orders sent later material with permission to incorporate it. Further information on individuals may well be available from the Religious Order concerned. The address of the current religious superior will be found in the Catholic Directory. Most orders have archivists and many of those are members of the Catholic Archives Society. Many have published articles describing their holdings in that society's journal Catholic Archives of which SoG has a complete run.

Medical Register 1779

Compiled by Dr R J Hawkins, this surname index lists all those appearing in the rare 1779 Medical Register, a copy of which is held in the Society's library. It is hoped to include scanned images of the register in due course.

Solicitors’ index

This index was originally compiled on record cards and donated to the Society by the professional genealogist Brian Brooks in 2002. It was subsequently converted into digital form by Les Muriel. The coverage is not comprehensive and so it should only be treated as a finding aid. Some counties receive fuller treatment than others and it should be noted that since Mr Brooks retained the cards for London, Middlesex, Sussex and Wales no entries exist for these places. There is relatively little data on Scotland and India. The index was compiled from numerous sources including the following:

Law Lists: 1780, 1790, 1793, 1800, 1802, 1805, 1808-1828, 1830-1840, 1843-1849, 1851-1855, 1861. (The 1861 edition was sometimes used to show date of admission.)
1851 census
The Clerks of the Counties 1360-1960 by Sir Edgar Stephens, 1961

Gater Family History

This Index, compiled by Michael J E Gater, comprises references to the surname Gater and variants, mostly in the Staffordshire/Cheshire/Shropshire area.

The information has been extracted from various sources over a period of some 40 years. Where the orginal record has been consulted the exact entry has been given. However it has been necessary to condense some of the longer entries (eg. census records).

One name studies

Johncock one name study

Meacock one name study

Mr F T Meacock was a member of the Society of Genealogists from 1975-1987. In the course of his research he compiled a card index containing many references to the surname Meacock and variants, and these have been typed up by Mr L Muriel.

Mansfield

This one name card index for the surname Mansfield was compiled by the late William Le Hardy, County Archivist for Hertfordshire. It was donated to the Society by M A Pinhorn in 1987 and typed up by L A Muriel. The index covers a period from the eleventh century to the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Wellard

Mr F T Meacock was a member of the Society of Genealogists from 1975-1987. In the course of his research into the Meacock surname he also compiled a card index containing references to the surname Wellard, and these have been typed up by Mr L Muriel.

Registers

England

Portuguese Embassy chapel christenings 1663-1844

The original registers are held at the Portuguese Embassy and were transcribed by Mr L A Muriel. They consist of eight calf bound volumes, the christenings covering the years 1663-1844. The buildings in which the christenings took place are as follows:

The Queen’s Chapel, St. James Palace. Christenings recorded in volume B took place initially at the Queen’s Chapel, St. James Palace. This Chapel was designed by Inigo Jones and built between 1623 and 1627, essentially for the use of Charles I’s Catholic wife, Queen Henrietta Maria.

Somerset House Chapel. Later christenings in volume B took place at Queen Henrietta Maria’s new chapel at Somerset House. Work started in 1632 and the first mass was sung in 1636. Catherine of Braganza, King Charles II’s Portuguese wife, gained possession in 1670 and held it until her death in 1705. This Chapel was used as an extra-parochial Anglican Chapel until it was closed and demolished in 1775.

The Portuguese Chapel. The Portuguese Chapel moved to Portugal Row, Lincolns Inn Fields from 1700 to 1708. It subsequently transferred to Great Queen Street from 1721-23 and from 1724 it was at 23-24 Golden Square, the chapel fronting onto Warwick Street. In 1747 the Portuguese Chapel moved to 74 South Audley Street which then continued in Embassy usage until 1829. This Chapel was demolished in 1831. The Registers were maintained by Rev. John Jones at the Bavarian Chapel until 1849. Since that date the Embassy has held them.

Several individuals have lent the Society copies of their transcriptions of Registers.

Devon - 14 registers transcribed by David Horwill
Nottinghamshire - 71 registers transcribed by John Mellors
Suffolk - Registers for Brent Eleigh | Chelsworth | Chilton | Edwardstone | Gt Waldingfield | Kettlebaston and Lt Waldingfield transcribed by John Hanson