A few leading genealogy and family history organisations provide a wealth of information and specific help in every aspect of family history. These have their own websites, but the Society of Genealogists differs from the top websites covered in the book in that they have an office in the UK at which you can search extensive physical archives not accessible through the world wide web. As with public record offices, you therefore need to know what is on offer and how you can get the best out of the records.

The organisations’ sites themselves describe their various services in detail so a brief introduction only is needed here. There are equivalent family history and genealogy organisations in the USA and other countries, and these are also accessible via their websites.

Cyndi’s List website, as we have seen, has links to all kinds of family history-related organisations. Some are specialised, as you would expect, so an exploration of these is advisable when you have got properly started and have developed some particular interests, or face specific questions. Those featured in this chapter are more general and deserve an earlier visit.

Society Of Genealogists (Sog)

www.sog.org.uk

This society has its own archives of records that can be accessed at their office in London and offers a unique combination of research material, guidance and support. It is a charity whose objects are to ‘promote, encourage and foster the study, science and knowledge of genealogy’.

The SoG library is claimed to be the foremost in the British Isles with a large collection of family histories, civil registration and census material, and the widest collection of parish register copies in the country (over 9,000). Sections of the library cover the professions, schools and universities, the armed services, religious denominations, the peerage, heraldry, and British citizens living abroad.

Boyd’s Marriage Index covers some 2,600 parish registers with nearly seven million names. You can search the IGI on both CD-ROM (LDS FamilySearch) and microfiche, and online in the society’s computer suite, which offers free access to genealogical sites.

The Society runs an extensive range of lectures and courses on specific topics, to suit beginners right through to those with considerable knowledge. The facilities and events are available to members and non-members alike, but members have free access to the library and discounts on the Society’s events and publications. The Society runs two mailing lists, one giving news and information and the other a discussion list for members.

You will find this site particularly helpful when you advance from basic births, deaths and marriages records to other kinds of data and sources. Like all these sites, there is plenty of on-site help, both in finding your way around the site and also in doing your research generally. In this case the site caters for professional genealogists as well as the many lay people who use it. You can print out information leaflets on subjects like:

• note taking

• the relevance of surnames

• employing a professional researcher, and

• genealogy as a career.

You can search a name at this site but it links you to GENUKI which we cover later. Another search facility, on the home page, takes you to origins.net, the website of English Origins. This search incurs a small charge and the records are very limited. However, the search facilities at the SoG London offices are extensive, and will often provide a key to a whole direction of research.

A visit to the library is invariably the best advice, provided you are well prepared regarding the records you want to see, finding your way around and armed with specific questions. However, you can also obtain information by writing to the Society with your specific enquiry – read up on this on the website first. It is best to explore the website before even considering a visit to the offices.

You can print out some of their general help leaflets, listed below, if you want more guidance and background reading.

• Family records and their layout

• Note taking and keeping for genealogists

• Genealogy as a career

• Notes for Americans on tracing their British ancestry

• The relevance of surnames in genealogy

• Starting genealogy

• The right to Arms

• Essential addresses

• The Data Protection Act and genealogists

• Has it been done before?

• Employing a professional researcher: a practical guide

• SoG Welcomes your Research.

Bear in mind that most ‘getting started’ articles and leaflets say much the same thing – like ‘talk to your relatives’, ‘work backwards’, ‘keep careful notes’ and such – so you soon need more specific guidance. Although the site itself may not be the biggest, the SoG as an organisation is a treasury of genealogical information.

The library holdings are too extensive to list in full. The lower library (LL) in the basement is a good place to start as it houses some important indices:

• General Register Office indices England & Wales 1837–1925

• 1881 Census indexes on fiche & CD ROM – 1841–1861 census returns on film

• Scottish GRO indexes 1855–1920

• International Genealogical Index, 1992 edition on fiche

• Scottish pre-1855 OPR indices on fiche

• Scottish 1891 census index on fiche – Scottish 1841–91 census returns on film

• Principal Probate Registry indices 1858–1930

• Pre-1858 will indices & calendars on film

• Great Card Index & film/fiche collections

• Manuscript Document & Special collections

• CD-ROM computers (for IGI etc.)

• Internet Access to Online Databases

• Microforms & Readers

• Closed access items (Apply to staff – except items located on ‘shelf 9’ or ‘fragile binding’).

Further information about your ancestors, such as trades and professions and religious affiliation can be researched on upper floors, which also house census and other records.

Computerised cataloguing was introduced in 1991 since when all new acquisitions have been entered. The Library Catalogue Project was begun in 1997 with the aim of computer cataloguing approximately 80,000 items acquired before that date.

The project is now complete and OPAC (On-line Public Access Catalogue) terminals are available in all parts of the library. Although not yet online, a county by county list of all the parish registers held in the library appears on the Parish Register copies section of the website. One hundred and five thousand items are listed at the time of writing. Recent acquisitions are listed in the Genealogists’ Magazine and the SoG website.