Surnames & families
Searching for surnames and families
The relevance of surnames in genealogy. 
Has it been done before?
Deposit your research at the Society.
Unique or unpublished material at the Society
Visit the Society Library to consult the records yourself or use the search & copy service.
- Surname Document Collection or use left hand side links panel to view the index
- Special Collections.
- Index to Pedigrees or family trees (A-Z) or use left hand side link panel
- Members’ birth briefs or use left hand side links panel to view the index
- Members’ interests
- Unpublished, bound family histories, one-name studies and biographical material. Search the catalogue. eg. Look for: Subject which Begins with: "Smith (surname)"
- The Great card index.
- The Bernau index.
- Other unique card indexes.
Indexes & images or transcripts of source material on-line
Charged data services
Some sites allow free searching of indexes but you pay for greater detail or images of source documents. Others require you to subscribe or register before access to the indexes is granted.
Society data on-line is divided between two web sites which are free from within the Society’s library:
- The Origins Network. Members of the Society also receive one free access to SoG data per quarter from home.
- Find my past (Including data from the former National Archivist web site). Members of the Society are entitled to offers on subscriptions and pay-per-view units.
- Other main subscription or pay-per-view web sites are, in A-Z order:
- Ancestors on board
- Ancestry UK, Australia, Canada & USA (free from within the Society’s library)
- The National Archives DocumentsOnline - (free 3 month trial from within the Society’s library)
- Family History on Line
- Family Relatives
- The Genealogist
- Roots UK
- Scotland’s People
Free on-line indexes
- Access to Archives(A2A) for catalogue entries from UK archives.
- Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource Files
- FreeBMD, FreeCEN and FreeREG
- GENUKI for - amongst other things links to on-line parish clerks web sites
- International Genealogical Index(IGI) for baptisms & marriages worldwide.
- The National Archives(TNA) [formerly the Public Record Office] )
- National Register of Archives(NRA)
- UKBMD for indexes to local registration of births, marriages and deaths
Contacting other researchers
- The Genealogical Research Directory 2007 (last year of publication)
- Genes Reunited
- GENUKI for links to family history societies members’ interests.
- Guild of One-Name Studies
- Lost Cousins
- Rootsweb
Published family histories and biographical material
On-line library catalogues
- British Library
- Canadian Library gateway
- Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
- Library of Congress
- National Library of Australia
- National Library of Ireland
- National Library of Scotland
- National Library of Wales
- Society of Genealogists Search the catalogue. eg. Look for: Subject which Begins with: "Smith (surname) "
Guides to published pedigrees and family histories
(mainly middle class families, the gentry and nobility). Contact the Research Assistant for searches on these sources. NB. We do not guarantee to have all source material indexed in these guides.
General
The Genealogist’s guide, by George W Marshall. Guildford: The author, 1903. Reprint: London: Heraldry Today, 1967
A genealogical guide, by John Beach Whitmore. London: Walford Brothers, 1953.
The genealogist's guide: an index to printed British pedigrees & family histories 1950-75 being a supplement to ... Marshall ... & ... Whitmore, by Geoffrey B Barrow. London: Research Publishing Co., 1977.
Scotland
Scottish family history: a guide to works of reference on the history & genealogy of Scottish families, by Margaret Stuart. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1930. Reprint: Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994
Scottish family histories, by Joan P S Ferguson. 2nd edition. Edinburgh: National Library of Scotland, 1986.
Ireland
Bibliography of Irish family history and genealogy, by Brian de Breffney. Cork: Golden Eagle Books, 1974
Bibliography of Irish family history, by Edward MacLysaght. 2nd edition. Blackrock: Irish Academic Press, 1982.
Gentry, peerage and nobility
Burke’s family index. London: Burke’s Peerage, 1976.
A directory of British peerages from the earliest times to the present day, by Francis Leeson. Revised edition. London: Society of Genealogists Enterprises, 2002. Buy this book from the SoG BookshopOnline
Indexes to quartered coats [of arms] in Harleian Society visitation series [vols. 1-106], by R C Gale. Ts. 1961.
Indexes to quartered coats [of arms] from various sources not included in the index to the Harleian Society visitation series, by R C Gale. Ts. 1962.
Index to the pedigrees in Crisp’s visitations ... of England and Wales [and] ... Ireland, by Joseph Jackson Howard & Frederick Arthur Crisp 1893-1921. Ts. Nd.
A guide to European genealogies exclusive of the British Isles with an historical survey of the principal genealogical writers, by Frederick R Pryce. High Wycombe: University Microfilms Ltd., 1965.