Searching the Great Card Index

This collection of records is unique to the Society. A variety of people collected data from a variety of places and in a variety of formats. Therefore it is a very varied collection and amounts to a lucky dip. You can search as you would other records, but you may find unexpected nuggets of information, confirmation of things you already knew, or indeed links to other sources.

The cards include references to Exchequer deponents, Protestation Oaths, baptisms, memorial inscriptions, marriages, poll books, manor rolls, pipe rolls, pedigrees, visitations, obituaries, letters to newspapers, burials, property transactions, directories, poll tax, sedan chair licences, charitable donations, wills, administrations, Royal Navy appointments, document collections in the Library and elsewhere, church appointments, and more. Some of the cards refer to primary sources which have now been lost or destroyed.

This is by no means a primary source. It is an index to images of the cards which were originally to be found in a vast cabinet in the Library. Sometimes the cards themselves often refer to other documents, many of which are in the Library.