Re: Society Of Genealogists (London)

I have been member of SOG for about 5 years. It has good points and
bad. I am not involved in running it, or have any contact with those
who do, I am just a member who has made reasonable use of some of the
resources they provide. As such these (like taf's) are my personal
opinions.

It is not like a commercial organisation in the sense that most
Americans would understand it, so I will give you a little background
(as I see it) to put it into context. It also makes no claims for its
members and, as Renia says, claiming to be a member only suggests that
you have a serious addiction to genealogy and nothing else. That said,
most serious genealogists in the UK will have a requirement to use the
SOG Library at some point (because of their unique holdings) and would
tend, therefore, to be members. Being a Fellow is a different matter.

Much of its problems arrise because it is basically a relatively small
group of people who are interested in Genealogy and over the years
have operated on a subscription basis, re-investing monies into
creating a Library. However, since it is so long established it has
received thousands of donations of private research over decades,
including the entire unpublished work of numerous eminent
genealogists. Its Library has also grown over those decades both from
purchases and private donation to out-grow the 4 storey building it
operates from in London. Much of the staffing is by volunteers and the
Library is under-utilised compared to the size of the resource
available.

It is basically a privately funded Library that is struggling to deal
with changing technology and
an infra-structure that needs a considerable cash-injection to bring
it (and its resources) into the 21st Century. Since it has
historically been operated to re-cycle its funds into building its
resources in the form of its Library holdings it has been slow to
exploit the vast potential it has for making this available to a wider
audience e.g. you dear reader. I get to see things only because I can
visit the 'Vaults' and look at hand written letters from people like
Walter Goodwin Davies, but this mass of information is not digitised
and much of it is not even catalogued.

This means that the Society is constantly looking for ways to raise
money and to modernise. Hence any emphasis there is on the website.
They are probably 5 to 10 years behind the movement to commercialise
in other areas of the field and need to catch up.

In summary,

The institution is of very high standing
There are many members who are of high standing
Being a member does not necessarily mean you are of any particular
standing

Hope this helps.


.

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