Zooming Ahead
Else Churchill of the Society of Genealogists explains how the spiritual home of the UK’s family historians has adapted to thrive during lockdown
How the Society of Genealogists is thriving in lockdown, plus save on the cost of membership with our offer
Founded in 1911 and currently based in Clerkenwell, Central London, the Society of Genealogists is the UK’s largest and oldest genealogical Society. We host well-received events, courses and talks for family historians of all levels of experience, and publish a useful series of genealogical guides and publications.
However, our prime asset is undoubtedly our library, which is much more than a collection of books – although we have plenty of those too. There is an unrivalled selection of genealogical sources and resources for the places where our ancestors lived, and for what they did in their lives, together with family histories and research notes made by genealogists over the years.
We also have thousands of copies of local parish records, including registers and memorial inscriptions. As a FamilySearch Affiliate Partner Library we can provide access to digital copies of sources created by FamilySearch ( familysearch.org), and a huge collection of microfilms of records not yet digitised. What’s more, although the Society isn’t a formal public record office of deposit, we are often an archive of last resort because we take
‘Our library has an unrivalled selection of sources and resources’
in original records and collections of interest to family historians that might otherwise not find an archival home.
The library is freely available to full members of the Society, and open to associate members and general visitors on payment of a small daily search fee, although it has been closed for much of the past 12 months because of the pandemic.
Adjusting To The New Normal
It has been said that during the Covid-19 crisis companies have had to undertake the equivalent of three years’ planning for change and technical development in three weeks. That speedy whirlwind of events certainly seems to have been the case for our staff and volunteers during the various lockdowns we have lived through.
When we first closed to members and visitors in spring 2020 during the first lockdown, our initial focus was to promote and change our website as quickly as we could. We have regularly updated the ‘News’ section at sog.org. uk/news, while sog.org.uk/about/services-duringclosure reminds our members of the services and online events that we can keep doing remotely with many of our staff working from their homes, while access to the building is restricted.
The online community hub for our members has gathered in strength in lockdown as more family historians use it to speak to each other, ask questions, and get help and advice. We’ve also been highlighting in our ‘News’ section the special collections held by the Society that are now online and can be viewed by members in our catalogue SoG Data Online: sogdata.org.uk.
Improving The Online Catalogue
During lockdown our library staff and developers have been improving how our online collections and data work and look, and we’ve been busy uploading more records. Non-members can make a free search of our digital collections to find out if there is an item of interest at sogdata.org.uk/bin/index.php, but only members can view the full entry or the relevant image. The ‘Search Records’ section of the website at sog.org.uk/search-records shows other free catalogue searches and surname look-ups that will indicate what might be useful in the library. We also run a library search copy service, although we have had to restrict the service during lockdown. However, if you email our genealogy inquiry service via genealogy@sog. org.uk, we might well be able to help.
Hundreds of the library’s fragile or out-ofcopyright books have been scanned, and digital versions of them are available to read remotely. We’ve linked all of the digitised books from the catalogue, so look for the blue globe icon in the online library catalogue and this will link you directly to the digital book if you are signed into the members’ area. You can also browse through our ‘News’ section to catch up on the articles we have written about the useful sources and collections that can be found on SoG Data Online including wills, digitised directories, and sources for trades, occupations and professions.
The ‘Learn’ section of the website at sog.org. uk/learn contains publicly available guides to useful records and advice for anyone starting their family history, but for those wishing to take their research further we’ve added recorded talks about the treasures in the library and some guidance on tracing women ancestors or rural families to the existing free talks in the online ‘Members’ Learning Zone’, along with a free beginners’ online genealogy course with regular Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine contributor Emma Jolly.
However, our proudest achievement during lockdown has been the creation of a brand-new online education and talks programme to replace the lectures and courses that we can no longer hold at the Society’s office, which has required a great deal of work from our staff and volunteers. Like so many other organisations we have learnt to embrace Zoom technology so that we can deliver virtual talks to literally thousands of online attendees. The talks have been varied and well received. Some have been uninterrupted, illustrated hour-long PowerPoint presentations, while others have included ‘break out’ discussion and interaction between attendees, just as we would do in the common room between talks at the Society’s headquarters. Some of the talks have been free orientations to get the best of the Society from a distance. Our intensive Genealogy Getaway courses that usually last several challenging but interesting days have been transformed into online courses over Zoom.
In addition, the number of people who signed up for our online DNA and Further Genealogy Getaways was far more than we would have expected to attend in person in the lecture room, and our online Stage 1 & 2 Family History Skills evening classes have attracted more than five times the number of students we’d usually see at the Society. Similar courses will be running during the forthcoming year.
Streaming Success
More people who live away from London now have the chance to attend our talks, and we have adjusted some of the start times so that our friends overseas can attend too. Our livestreamed talks have often sold out, so we’ve increased our Zoom attendance limit to
300. In addition, many of the talks are now recorded and can be ordered from sog.org.uk/ books-courses/recorded-talks to view and listen to at your convenience.
In fact these talks and courses have proved so popular that, although we still very much look forward to the time when we can hold events in the Society’s building, we’ve decided that our education programme will mainly be delivered online in future. To serve that end we have made improvements to the web-booking services and some back-office systems to improve the events
‘Our education programme will mainly be online in future’
experience, as you can see from our dedicated booking site at societyofgenealogists.arlo.co.
We’ve learnt together how to make the most out of Zoom, and we have a team of staff and volunteer hosts and co-hosts who offer help and support during the live events. We’ve also devised a training programme to help our speakers develop their Zoom presentation skills and transfer their talks for us online. For anyone who hasn’t yet joined one of our online talks or courses, we have some forthcoming free support workshops to show how Zoom works in this environment, and to give everyone the confidence to come and learn with the Society.
However, we don’t just offer online talks and courses – we also hold virtual social gatherings for family historians around the world. Our online Christmas party was a great success, and we are now looking forward to the Lady Day and Michelmas gatherings in March and September respectively.
If you can use a PC, laptop, tablet device or even a smartphone then you will be able to meet us online and take advantage remotely of the enormous collections in the Society’s library. Please do come and join us, and find out everything that the Society has to offer.