Volunteering With Us

The Society of Genealogists has always relied upon the goodwill and talent of volunteers. We welcome people from all walks of life, who are vital to all areas of the Society's operations and who contribute to a range of special projects.

The premises of the society is currently closed due to the current covid lockdown. When the society is able to reopen we will again be scheduling volunteers for working on site. Keep an eye on our coronavirus status page.

Volunteering at home

We have a very busy community of home indexing volunteers who contribute to the Society from all over the UK and beyond, and if this is something you are interested in doing we can get you started straight away. See below for a list of current home indexing projects.

Great Card Index One of the society’s original crown jewel resources, the Great Card Index was a giant name index comprised of over a million mostly handwritten cards referencing a wide range of name-rich sources such as parish registers, marriage licenses, wills, monumental inscriptions and Chancery Proceedings. Society members compiled the index between 1911 and 1939 and it covers resources from the late 11th century to the late 19th century. Digitised about a decade ago, the indexing of these cards will make the GCI accessible and searchable again on the society’s website. We’ve been preparing loads of GCI image file batches so there is plenty to do over the winter. Both members of the society and non-members can contribute to this project.

SoG Data Online We have many resources on the society’s website and home volunteers have been indexing them to ensure their content is captured by the website’s main search function. Lately, our focus has been the indexing of books of monumental inscriptions, and burial records in parish registers. Members of the Society can contribute to this project, which requires the ability to log in to the members' area of our website.

Pedigree Rolls Project The society’s large collection of pedigree charts is a rich source of information, and our PRP indexers love the challenge of examining these items and entering the information from them into their family tree software at home. Many of these tree charts are extraordinary works of art and genuine curiosities. The society has arranged for the scanning of this collection to continue over the winter so we expect our PRP indexers to be very busy. Both members and non-members can contribute to this project, but to be eligible you do need to have family tree software (any brand) installed on your computer.

Some Benefits of Volunteering 

As a volunteer you can benefit from their participation in several ways:

• The opportunity to attend some free society events such as online talks
• The opportunity to participate in learning opportunities related to your work
• Membership of our SoG Volunteer Community Forum where volunteers can assist one another with their projects
  and receive information about the society
• An e-newsletter containing project updates and information about the society and free events
• Knowing that you are contributing to a non-profit charitable organisation that serves a vibrant research community throughout the UK and beyond

Please complete a Volunteer Expression of Interest form
and tell us about yourself.

If you have any questions about volunteering at the Society,
please contact Christine Worthington, Volunteer Manager 
volunteermanager@sog.org.uk

Some Light Reading . . . 

05/2020 Our Volunteers V: SoG Data Online Resources Indexers
05/2020 Our Volunteers IV: Pedigree Rolls Project Indexers
04/2020 Our Volunteers III: Great Card Indexers
03/2020 Our Volunteers II: Face to Face Volunteers
01/2020 Our Volunteers I: Counter Volunteers
12/2019 International Volunteer Day
11/2019 World Digital Preservation Day
10/2019 Libraries Week at the Society of Genealogists
10/2019 World Mental Health Day