Our library is open to all - members visit free of charge and non-members pay a day pass fee of £20. You're welcome to visit any time during our opening hours: 10.30am-4.00pm Wed-Fri.
For one week per month we have extended opening hours. During extended opening weeks, the library will be open Wed-Sat 10.30am - 4.00pm, apart from an extension to 7pm on Thursday. See our Visit us page to find out the dates of extended hours weeks.
It's not necessary to book your visit, but if you are travelling a long distance and would like to reserve a library computer it's a good idea to pre-book your visit.
For information on how to book your visit, and other information about visiting us, please see our Visit Us page.
Not all of our collections are kept on-site, so if you need to order collection items from offsite storage, please order one week in advance using the Collections Order Form.
Use the following to find items that may be useful for your research, with details to include in your order form:
- NEW! SoG Researcher Handbook - find out what is in our collections, how to search them and how to access them.
- SoG Library Catalogue for published works. Look at the location field in catalogue records to find out if an item is held in the library or in our offsite store.
- Archives Finding Aids for items in our special collections, small collections and document collections. Use the information given in the finding aids to order archival items from our offsite store.
- Online Resources for resources members can access at home including digital resources and indexes, memorial cards and family trees. Here is a direct link to SoG Explore and the searchable A-Z List of datasets.
- Collections Guides (below) give an overall view of what is held in our collections, and some detail on particular subject areas. They are a great way of finding out more information about our holdings, their formats, and their availability. We're regularly creating more research guides and would be delighted to hear from you about any subjects you would like us to cover. To let us know your thoughts or to inquire about specific collections, please contact collections@sog.org.uk
If you’re planning to visit us we recommend that you watch Else Churchill’s video guide here.
Can't visit us? See details on accessing collections remotely.
Donating to the Society of Genealogists' collections
Library: Let us know if you wish to donate published works for inclusion in our library collection - library@sog.org.uk. Particular subjects of interest to our members are: family history; local and general history relating to places in the UK, Ireland, British colonies and crown dependencies; genealogical reference and instructional works, such as research and record guides; name-rich resources such as directories; topical resources for military history, heraldry, professions.
Larger collections of published works are subject to a financial contribution towards processing and cataloguing so please send a list to the email address above so we can check to our catalogue.
Duplicate items and items outside our collection policy are passed to our bookshop to raise funds for the library.
Archive: Depositing your research is a great way to ensure that your research survives, is well cared for and available to other family researchers in the future. Information about donating research collections is given on our Collection Deposit page. Archive collection deposits are subject to an approval process. The first step is to fill in the form on the collection deposit page to tell us about the content, size and condition of the collection. Enquiries about depositing research can be sent to rebecca.carlton@sog.org.uk
Digital Journal Exchange
The Society of Genealogists has a history of journal exchanges with kindred organisations.
If your historical society, genealogical society or record society produces a digital journal containing substantial historical content you may be interested in exchanging it with us for our quarterly Genealogists' Magazine. We are proud to say that Genealogists' Magazine is now over 100 years old - the first issue appeared in 1925.
Journal exchange partners agree to:
- provide the exchange journal for their members' personal and educational use, and to ensure there is no distribution of the exchange journal for profit
- share the exchanged journal with their members in a secure way - on internal computers at their premises, or in a password-protected part of their website reserved for members - and not engage in direct distribution to members in any form, nor make the journal openly accessible to any visitor on their website
- respect the intellectual rights and copyright of their exchange partners and not to modify the exchange journal, or reproduce any parts of it in other works without consent and proper attribution. Permission to use parts of our Society's publications in other works and information about attribution can be sought by contacting genenquiries@sog.org.uk
If you have any questions, or if you are interested in entering into a journal exchange agreement with the Society of Genealogists, contact us at library@sog.org.uk
Collections Guides
1. Online Resources
A guide to our online collections and subscription databases
2. Library Resources
A guide to our library collections
3. Archive Resources
A guide to our archive collections
4. Jewish Genealogy Resources
A guide to sources for researching Jewish ancestors
August 2025 Library Update
· CHANGES TO OPENING HOURS. From August, we'll be opening only one Saturday per month, but introducing one later opening per month.
We'll be opening later on the first Thursday of each month (10.30 am-7 pm) then open on the Saturday following it (10.30 am-4 pm). Wednesdays and Fridays remain unchanged (10.30 am-4 pm).
The first late opening week will include Thu 7 Aug and Sat 9 Aug, and the next late opening week will include Thu 4 Sep and Sat 6 Sep.
Late opening weeks might suit out-of-towners visiting the city for a few days. During late opening weeks, the library will be open Wed-Sat 10.30 am-4.00 pm, apart from the extension to 7 pm on Thursday.
All other weeks we'll be open Wed-Fri 10.30 am-4.00 pm.
If you have any questions about our opening hours, let us know collections@sog.org.uk
· We now have over 25,500 items on the open library shelves. We continue to add tracts for the various categories in the library. We now have tracts for Textbooks, Heraldry, India, Wales and counties up to Norfolk. We are also amending the catalogue records of microfiche held permanently onsite so that it will be easier to see which fiche are in the library.
· Resources on SoG Explore: Now that the migration from the old database to the new is complete, we are preparing to add new content, commencing with the monumental inscriptions transcripts we digitised during lockdown. There will be more on this in the next library update, with a list of resources processed.
· Information Provision Review: Work on the Final Report continues and will be published in the next Library Update.
· Researcher Handbook: In response to the abovementioned review, we have produced a 12-page booklet for new (and not-so-new) researchers visiting the library. These can be found on the table next to the photocopier. We also now have an online version. The Handbook is designed to give you a quick overview of our collections, how to find out what is in them and how to access them. This is a first-generation document, and your feedback is appreciated. We'll be updating it three times a year - so let us know if anything could be clearer or if anything else needs to be included.
· Featured Collection: The Jun-Sep Featured Collection contains over 250 books from the UK Peerage/Royalty collection. As always, the Featured Collection can be found adjacent to the common area next to the library. With the featured collection, you'll find a printed list of general peerage items recently added permanently to the library shelves (in the rolling shelves next to Heraldry), and information about a link to the recording of Else Churchill's related talk entitled 'Sources for Titled and Landed Families in the SoG’s Library'. A link to the video can be found on the Library Web Guide on all library computers, and headphones are kept at the Information Desk in the library.
· Collections Corner: The Genealogists Magazine (August) will contain an article by our volunteer Harry about a special and curious item from our archives. Look out for A Priest’s Voice in a Divided England: The Life and Legacy of John Featley Through His Notebook.
· Events in the Library: The next county research event in the library will be the Researching in Powys library tour on 13 August, Collections Up Close: Hidden Gems in Print on 20 August, Discover Your Huguenot Heritage on 24 October.
Christine Worthington
Research Collections Coordinator
collections@sog.org.uk
Access Collections Remotely
- Members who cannot visit us can use our library catalogue and (with your member login) search our online collections, for any items that may assist your research.
- Send your research questions to genenquiries@sog.org.uk. Our genealogy staff can assist our members with general research inquiries and help you identify the right resources for your needs whether they be held in our collections, online or elsewhere.
- If you have identified an item of interest in the Society of Genealogists' library or archive collections - contact our genealogy staff who can interrogate items for you - see Genealogy Search/Copy Service below.
- We are preparing to implement a Virtual Reading Room service in 2025 - keep an eye on this page for information about this.
Genealogy Search/Copy Service
The genealogy team can offer a limited search copy service to look at items within our library and collections and make copies where appropriate.
- To request a search please email genenquiries@sog.org.uk enclosing information about what you wish to be searched. Please include any links to the catalogue or digital collections if appropriate. We will then check the item, order it from the store if needed, and let you know as soon as possible what the search copy fees will likely be and how payment may be made.
- Generally, a search can be made to see if we hold the item and copy the appropriate pages or entries after receipt of the Society’s library handling/search fee of £20 (members £15, please quote your membership number)
- Most searches will not exceed half an hour. Up to five copies of pages are included in the initial handling/search fee.
- Additional pages (if found) will be supplied for 50 pence per A4 sized original and £1 per A3 size.
- If copies are posted overseas postage charges will be applied.
- Alternatively, scanned pdf/jpeg images (as appropriate and if possible) will be emailed at the same price.
Do You Need to Engage a Professional Researcher?
The Society of Genealogists cannot undertake lengthy genealogical research or look at sources outside its collections. If you are looking for a professional researcher to carry out more in-depth or comprehensive research on your behalf, please take a look at our comprehensive guide Employing a Professional Genealogist, which provides details on both the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) and the Register of Qualified Genealogists (RQG).
Join us
As a member, you can make the most of our resources, access our experts, and find a welcoming community of people interested in family history and genealogy.
We all have roots. Let’s find them together.
