Introduction to the Barnsley Family History Society

The Society was formed in 1986 by a group of family historians in the Cudworth area of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK.

As the group expanded, it was put on a more formal basis, and adopted the name of the BARNSLEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY. In 1993 the B.F.H.S. became affiliated to the Federation of Family History Societies.

Membership now exceeds 400, and includes many out of town or overseas members.

Member's meetings, unless otherwise announced, are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7:15pm, at St Paul's Church Hall, Greenfoot Lane, Barnsley..

We have a varied programme of speakers at our monthly meetings, and on our 'members nights', when no guest speaker has been arranged, we make available several microfiche readers for the use of Society members. A listing of our microfiche library , which includes the IGI for England and Wales, may be found on this web site.

The Society produces its own Journal, free to members, which is issued four times a year, and issues a regular Newsletter by electronic mail. A collection of articles published in earlier issues of the Journal is now available on these pages, as well as the online version of our Register of Members Surname Interests . Another recent development is the opening of a message board for our members to use. Contact the Web Page editor quoting your membership number, for details on how to join in.

The Society took part in the National Project to transcribe the 1881 Census for England & Wales, and has purchased the indexes on a County by County basis. A full set of the indexes, is now available for the use of our members on members nights, and for out of town or overseas members we offer a search and print out service from the 1881 census computerised index. A small fee is payable for this service. For a full list of search services see our Search Services page.

The Society also has a growing library of both printed books and indexes, all of which are available for members to borrow. Another popular facility is the bookstall, which carries a good selection of local & family history books and also our own series of indexes to the 1851 Census of the Barnsley area. This is an ongoing project with several of our members helping with the transcription. A computerised search and print out service is also available from this material. Contact our secretary for further details. Volume 22 of this series, Royston is now available. (Note: owing to poor condition of the original ennumerator's returns and the large number of illegible entries (261) found in the Royston 1851 material, the booklet contains an index to all the legible 1851 returns, and also an index to the returns of 1861). See our List of Publications for further details.

For our out of town or overseas members, we offer a mail order service for the titles included in our own List of Publications, as well as a number of other Books related to the history of the Barnsley area. We can also supply the Godfrey Series of Old Ordnance Survey Maps related to our area.

Subscriptions cover the period 1st January to 31st December. Anyone joining the society after 1st October will be considered to be a fully paid up member until 31st December the following year.

Answers to general enquiries, and details of future meetings and events can be obtained from our Secretary:

Gail Woodhead, 4 Cranford Gardens, Royston, Barnsley S71 4SP.
Email: secretary@barnsleyfhs.co.uk

If you would like to join the Barnsley Family History Society, print out our Membership form and mail it to our secretary at the address above.