Society of Genealogists

Society Projects

Can you help?

The Society is always looking for volunteers to work on typing and indexing projects.

These range from relatively small, individual jobs to creating major databases. Several of our current projects are now being carried out using an on-line transcription tool supplied by findmypast.co.uk.

For the on-line indexing you will need broadband Internet access and, for the small, one-off indexing projects, spreadsheet software such as Excel or Open Office. For some projects we need people who can come in to the Society on a Monday or Friday to carry out the work.

If you would like to help please email the Volunteer coordinator, Mary Timmins, or write to her care of the Society, stating whether you want to work at the Society or from home.

Current projects

Coleman’s catalogue and index: James Coleman was an heraldic and genealogical bookseller, publisher and second hand document dealer in London in the second half of the 19th century. He sold marriage settlements, wills, rent rolls, peerage claims, private and local Acts of Parliament, appeal cases, pedigrees, deeds, autograph letters, maps etc. as well as new and second hand books on heraldry, topography and biography. His catalogues which were produced on a regular basis between 1859 and 1911 gave brief details of the items for sale.; The Society has bound copies of these catalogues which were given to us in 1915 as part of the Snell Collection. They come under the heading of "printed ephemera" and it is rare for such a long and complete run to survive. A card index of nearly 50,000 names was compiled in 1936. Volunteers working at the Society are now expanding this index to include, where stated, the year, the county and sometimes the parish or place where the person lived. This could prove most useful for placing a family in a particular area and time. It has, however, to be borne in mind that the original documents are now unfortunately either no longer in existence or are in private hands. If you would like to work on this project please contact our Volunteer coordinator (details above).; The illustration here is of the front cover of a catalogue for 1865. Coincidentally, the item offered at the bottom of the page - the original burial register of Mr Roger’s Meeting House, Collier’s Rents, White Street, Southwark - was given to the Society in 1993 by one of our members. Having been photocopied and transcribed, the original was donated to the Southwark Local Studies Library.

image from W T Pike's Trade Directory, Halifax, Yorkshire

The Business Index: This project is an index to British shopkeepers, businessmen and women and their companies. The primary source material is a series of books published in the 1890s by the Brighton firm of Robinson, Son and Pike which later became W T Pike. Pike seems to have traveled to large towns and cities all over the British Isles, offering the local corporation and businesses the opportunity to appear in a book containing a history of the area, its attractions, major institutions and its commercial life. There are sometimes details of town councillors, often with vignette-sized photographs and one has a picture of the local football team! Shops, businesses and manufacturers probably had to pay for inclusion, the amount depending on the size of the entry. The proprietor or manager seems to have been visited at work and interviewed to provide the copy for the book.; Trade directories only contain a bare listing of all local businesses but those included in these books have a minimum of a paragraph about each shop etc, often showing a photograph of it or the proprietor and there are frequently details of when and from whom the business was acquired (often a named relative). Family members working in the business are usually given and, if a person is prominent in local society, the entry often mentions membership of the corporation and leisure activities including involvement with clubs, charities and other institutions. This kind of information tells a lot about an individual’s character and is extremely difficult to find elsewhere in such a comprehensive form. The illustrations are photographs of people and places which were taken for the purpose or acquired from local sources and often include line drawings of products sold by the business; The first tranche of this index is due to go on-line at findmypast.co.uk in 2011; These books are now extremely rare, since, like trade directories, they rapidly became out of date and were therefore discarded. If you spot one of the volumes in this series for sale by a local bookseller, please contact the Librarian on 020-7702 5484 in case it is one we do not yet have. They are usually slim volumes of no more than half an inch across the spine and about 10 inches tall. The titles will be either "Where to buy at ...", "A descriptive account of ..." or "An illustrated account of ..."; If you have broadband Internet access and would like to help with indexing these and other sources from home, please contact our Volunteer coordinator (details above).

Civil Service Evidences of Age: index conversion: Candidates for Civil Service examinations between 1855 and 1939 and applicants for government pensions had to provide proof of their age: A birth certificate for the post-Civil Registration period or something like a certified extract from a baptismal register for the period before this or in countries of origin which did not have civil registration of births. The period covered is therefore people born from the mid 18th to the early 20th centuries. The geographical spread is extremely wide - there are many births in Ireland, the Channel Islands, Malta and Gibraltar and others for British people born all over the world especially in India - everything from Russian baptismal certificates to Indian horoscopes drawn up at the child's birth. The rank of those represented includes everyone from the “Heaven-born” Indian civil service officers to Irish letter carriers and Scottish prison warders. They are called “irreplaceable” because the Civil Service only kept those proofs where the candidate did not have a regular birth certificate. Many of the declarations concern births which were not officially recorded in the British Isles or people who were registered with a different name from that which they later used.; Society volunteers have produced an index to this unique and extremely valuable source which is available on the Internet at www.findmypast.co.uk. The index entries now need linking to the images of the documents. If you would like to help with this project and can come to the Society on a Monday or Friday to work on it, please contact our Volunteer coordinator (details above).

Apprentices of Great Britain 1710 - circa 1810: In 1921 the Society was instrumental in arranging the transfer of records of a tax paid on apprenticeship indentures from the Inland Revenue to the Public Record Office. The Society then created a typescript index to the volumes covering the period 1710 to 1774 but there they stopped. Images of the typed index up to 1774 are now available on the www.findmypast.co.uk website but we need volunteers to convert the old index into a fully searchable database. The coordinator for this project, Frank Hardy, is also typing up index entries from film copies of the later volumes from 1775 onwards.; At the moment, volunteers have to do this work at the Society but we are investigating a way of enabling them to work on the source material from home. If you would like to help with this project please contact our Volunteer coordinator (details above).

British Wills Index: The Society holds indexes, calendars, abstracts or transcripts of wills proved in most major probate courts. Some of this material is unique and covers wills never probated or lost as a result of bombing in World War II or in the fire at the Four Courts in Dublin in 1922. We have begun to index some of the manuscript and typescript sources but need more volunteers to help with the project. There is some work which can be copied for working on at home but much of it can only be done at the Society. We also need a volunteer coordinator for this project. If you would like to help please contact Mary Timmins (details above). Some initial results of this project are already available to Members on SoG Data Online after logging into MySoG.

Trinity House petitions 1787-1854: These applications for charity were made by disabled merchant seamen or their dependants. The typescript calendar published by the Society some years ago gives brief details of the petitioner (and the name of the husband for women applicants) and is available on findmypast.co.uk. However, the calendar needs converting into a searchable database. This may be possible using OCR software, otherwise it needs to be re-keyed. If you would like to take part in this project, please contact our Volunteer coordinator (details above).

Apprentices of Great Britain 1710 - circa 1810: In 1921 the Society was instrumental in arranging the transfer of records of a tax paid on apprenticeship indentures from the Inland Revenue to the Public Record Office. The Society then created a typescript index to the volumes covering the period 1710 to 1774 but there they stopped. Images of the typed index up to 1774 are now available on the www.findmypast.co.uk website but we need volunteers to convert the old index into a fully searchable database. The coordinator for this project, Frank Hardy, is also typing up index entries from film copies of the later volumes from 1775 onwards. At the moment, volunteers have to do this work at the Society but we are investigating a way of enabling them to work on the source material from home. If you would like to help with this project please contact our Volunteer coordinator (details above).

St Andrew Holborn: marriage records index: The church of St Andrew, Holborn is the largest of Wren's parish churches and stands at the western end of Holborn Viaduct by Holborn Circus. It also served one of the biggest parishes in London (it actually spanned the boundary of London and Middlesex) out of which five new parishes were eventually formed. The registers are large and contain many thousands of entries, as the parish has always been a popular place to marry. More significantly, the entries from the marriage registers do not appear on the International Genealogical Index or in Boyd's Marriage Index. Pallot's Marriage index has entries for 1780-1837 but these give only year and omit many of the details from the original registers. It is for these reasons that the Society of Genealogists is transcribing and indexing the registers. Index entries for the period 1754-1812 are already available on www.findmypast.co.uk Anyone interested in helping with this project should contact the Volunteer coordinator (details above).

Completed Projects

Great Western Railway shareholders index 1835-1935

Marriage licence indexes: Faculty Office (1701-1850) & Vicar-General (1694-1850) & Canterbury Peculiars

Great Western Railway shareholders index 1835-1935: The Great Western Railway kept details of the changes of shareholders in a large number of ledgers, called Probate Books, covering the period 1835 to 1935. 90% of the entries refer to changes resulting from deaths in England and Wales, however, the remainder relate to marriages, changes of name, powers of attorney and to events occurring in Scotland, Ireland and around the world. Each entry refers to at least two people in addition to the shareholder. In a number of the entries, relationships are given or may be inferred. See an example.; There are over 170,000 names covering events from 1824 to 1935 in the whole collection. It must be noted that the names are those shareholders, their executors and others and that there are almost no railway employees other than very senior managers. The index and images of the original books are available on www.findmypast.co.uk. These records are available to Members on SoG Data Online after logging into MySoG.

Marriage licence indexes: Faculty Office (1701-1850) & Vicar-General (1694-1850): These indexes of people who applied to the two major courts responsible for granting licences to marry contain some details not included in the marriage register entry prior to 1837. Many "well-off" nonconformists, who were forced to marry in the Church of England between 1754 and 1837, chose to do so by licence rather than by banns. More than 678,000 names were indexed by volunteers from printouts of the contemporary calendars. The original records are at Lambeth Palace Library but the Society holds film copies of them. The indexes are available on www.findmypast.co.uk. These records are available to Members on SoG Data Online after logging into MySoG.

Canterbury Peculiars: marriage licence index: This project was to index the marriage licences issued in various peculiars which came under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury. These peculiars included the deanery of Bocking (Essex), the deanery of the Arches (London), Shoreham (Kent) and Croydon (Surrey and Middlesex). Lambeth Palace Library completed the index for Bocking and volunteers at the Society are now finalising the remaining peculiars. The index will be made available on www.findmypast.co.uk These records will be available to Members on SoG Data Online after logging into MySoG.