The Library
Before coming to the Library...
Preparatory Work
The library of the Society of Genealogists is unique in this country. No other can claim to provide comparable facilities for students of the subject. One of its greatest merits is that virtually all books are on open shelves giving rapid access to a huge assortment of data.
However, it is absolutely essential to get the fullest possible information about the family or the individual whose origin you are investigating before consulting the Society's library. This cannot be too strongly emphasised, especially for those trying to trace the forebears in England of a family that has emigrated.
Much of the Society's register material ends in 1837 when the centralised indexes of births, marriages and deaths commence at the General Register Office, although the Society does have copies of the General Register Office birth, marriage and death indexes 1837-1920 (in the Lower Library on microfiche).
Thus before coming to the Society you must first collect together all the family traditions and obtain as much information as possible from living relatives, family bibles and any papers which may have survived, particularly the dates and places of births, marriages and deaths and details of occupations. Any gaps in these details should then be filled by reference to the General Register Office records and as much additional information as possible obtained from the Census Returns 1841-1891 at the Public Record Office, some of which have been indexed.