1 | Local history and record societies which have made past publications freely available online | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 | |||||||
3 | Notes | ||||||
4 | Content | two main types of content: record series (book-length primary source editions, calendars, etc) and society journals (containing, generally, a variety of shorter pieces which may be secondary literature or primary source focused). I'm not including society newsletters which usually only report recent news and activities, but these are often available, and societies may also have other kinds of useful digital/digitised resources - articles, reports, databases, indexes to print volumes, etc. | |||||
5 | Finding | often this is via simple lists or indexes; a few websites provide more sophisticated search facilities. If you're lucky journals may be indexed at article level, but often are just lists of volumes. Similarly, sometimes you may be able to download individual journal articles, but quite often they're only available as complete volumes. | |||||
6 | Access | in some cases, availability is on a rolling basis, with the most recent volumes restricted to society members; in other cases there seems to have been a one-off digitisation programme and it is unknown whether more recent publications will be made available in the future. Mostly the content is in PDF format but in a few cases it's HTML (which can still be printed but won't have original page numbers etc) | |||||
7 | |||||||
8 | Sections | ||||||
9 | society websites | access via a society website (primarily county societies but also some smaller administrative units); mostly hosted at the website but some give links to material hosted at the IA, Google books or elsewhere. For the latter, quality can be highly variable. | |||||
10 | welsh journals online | selective list of material available via Welsh Journals Online; includes only (primarily) English language periodicals and those including content published since 1950. There are many more older publications! You can usually download article PDFs (download icon bottom right of screen); sometimes this may not be available and only option is to download individual pages. | |||||
11 | internet archive | selective list of material available via the Internet Archive, primarily intended to give some examples of what's available, mostly pre-1923. Most have not been uploaded by the society that published them. IA metadata is highly variable, so search strategies need to be quite flexible (and you may need to wade through a lot of stuff from American societies for places named after English counties). | |||||
12 | |||||||
13 | Further resources | (lists may not be very up to date) | |||||
14 | RHS list of English societies | ||||||
15 | RHS list of Welsh societies | ||||||
16 | GENUKI list of societies (mainly family history) | ||||||
17 | BALH list of local history societies has many very local societies which might have further material | https://www.balh.org.uk/ | |||||
18 | localhistoryonline | ||||||
19 | British History Online | I've noted some BHO-hosted material, but there will almost certainly be much more than this | |||||
20 | Welsh Journals Online | https://journals.library.wales/ | As with BHO, there is considerably more than is noted here | ||||
21 | |||||||
22 | Abbreviations | ||||||
23 | ADS | Archaeology Data Service | |||||
24 | BHO | British History Online | |||||
25 | IA | Internet Archive | |||||
26 | WJO | Welsh Journals Online | |||||
27 | |||||||
28 | County societies - no (open) online content found (July 2019) | ||||||
29 | NB: even if they don't have free content, prices for digitised publications are often very low. | ||||||
30 | A number of the societies mention that they are considering digitisation - if they can fund it... | ||||||
31 | I've done various searches ('record society', 'historical society', 'antiquarian society', etc) but not completely systematically and may well have missed something! | ||||||
32 | Bedfordshire Historical Record Society | notes that some vols are on the IA but no direct links (see IA tab) | |||||
33 | Caernarvonshire Historical Society | no sign of any current website | (based at Gwynedd Archives, which itself has a fairly sketchy web presence) | ||||
34 | Cambridgeshire Record Society | ||||||
35 | Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society | ||||||
36 | Denbighshire Historical Society | website seems to be a work in progress...? | |||||
37 | Derbyshire Record Society | but see Derbyshire Archaeological Society | |||||
38 | Dorset Record Society | ||||||
39 | Hertfordshire Record Society | but see St Albans and Herts Architectural and Archaeological Society | |||||
40 | Huntingdonshire Local History Society | ||||||
41 | Lincoln Record Society | (some material on BHO) | |||||
42 | Merioneth Historical and Record Society | ||||||
43 | Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association | ||||||
44 | Norfolk Record Society | ||||||
45 | Thoroton Society (Nottinghamshire) | ||||||
46 | Oxfordshire Record Society | but see Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society | |||||
47 | Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society | ||||||
48 | Somerset Record Society | but see Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society | |||||
49 | South Wales Record Society | ||||||
50 | Staffordshire Record Society | (some material on BHO) | |||||
51 | Suffolk Records Society | ||||||
52 | Surrey Record Society | ||||||
53 | Dugdale Society (Warwickshire) | ||||||
54 | Warwickshire Local History Society | ||||||
55 | Worcestershire Historical Society | ||||||
1 | Society | society type | webpage | pub. dates (free content) | content type | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 | Anglesey Antiquarian Society | county | 1913-1930 | PDFs | (externally hosted files) | |
3 | Banbury Historical Society | town | 1959-2013 | PDFs | ||
4 | Berkshire Record Society | county | only 1994 | PDFs | ||
5 | Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society | town | various (mainly 1980s-90s) | HTML | ||
6 | Brecknock Society and Museum Friends (Breconshire) | county | 1955- | WJO; PDFs from 2004 | excludes latest 3 years | |
7 | Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society | counties | 1876-2013 | PDFs | ||
8 | Bristol Record Society | city and county | 1930-2006 | PDFs | ||
9 | Buckinghamshire Record Society | county | 1937-1985 | PDFs | ||
10 | Ceredigion Historical Society (Cardiganshire) | county | WJO | |||
11 | Chipping Campden History Society | town | 1993-2014 | PDFs | ||
12 | Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society | counties | 1874- | PDFs | site says last 10 years excluded, but actually seems to be only about 3 years. There is also (scattered) material on BHO. | |
13 | Derbyshire Archaeological Soceity | county | 1879- | PDFs/ADS | last 5 years excluded | |
14 | Devon and Cornwall Record Society | counties | a small number | IA | ||
15 | Devonshire Association | county | 1862-1920 | IA | note of plans to digitise more in future | |
16 | East Yorkshire Local History Society | area | various | PDFs | ||
17 | Essex Society for Archaeology and History | county | 1858-1999 | PDFs | also http://esah1852.org.uk/research/occasional-papers | |
18 | Flintshire Historical Society | county | WJO | |||
19 | Glamorgan History Society (Morgannwg) | county | WJO | |||
20 | Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society | county | 1887-2014 | PDFs | ||
21 | Woolhope Club [Herefordshire] | county | 1852-1938, 2003-2008 | PDFs | last 10? years excluded | |
22 | Kent Archaeological Society | county | 1858- | PDFs | last 3 years excluded | |
23 | Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire | counties | 1879-2012 | PDFs/IA | also some material on BHO | |
24 | Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire | counties | 1849-2008 | PDFs | ||
25 | Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society | counties | 1884-1912 (gaps) | IA | ||
26 | Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society | county | 1913- | PDFs | last 10 years excluded | |
27 | London Record Society | city | 1965-2004 | BHO | ||
28 | Society of Antiquaries of London | city | various | PDFs | ||
29 | Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-on-Tyne | area | 1822-2011 | PDFs | ||
30 | Powysland Club (Montgomeryshire) | county | IA/WJO | |||
31 | Northamptonshire Record Society | county | a small number | PDFs | ||
32 | Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society | county | 1936- | PDFs | last 5 years excluded | |
33 | Pembrokeshire Historical Society | county | 2006-2017 | HTML | ||
34 | Radnorshire Society | county | 1931-2004 | WJO | ||
35 | Rutland Local History and Record Society | county | 1980-2010 | PDFs | ||
36 | St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society | town and county | 1846-1961 | PDFs | ||
37 | Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society | county | 1974-2013 | PDFs | ||
38 | Surtees Society [Durham and Northumberland] | counties | 1835-1922 | IA | ||
39 | Sussex Records Society | county | various | online viewer | only downloadable as individual images. There is also some material on BHO. | |
40 | Tewkesbury Historical Society | town | selected articles, 2002- | HTML | ||
41 | Wiltshire Record Society | county | 1939-2002 | PDFs | ||
42 | Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society | county | 1870-2010 | IA | also some scattered material on BHO | |
43 | ||||||
44 | British Association for Local History | excludes latest three years | ||||
45 | Local Population Studies Society | ignore the note that says back issues are currently unavailable - they are all there! | ||||
46 | British Agricultural History Society | 1953- | PDFs | excludes latest four years. Not specifically local history but many articles include local/regional focus. |
1 | Journal | type | URL | dates | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 | Brycheiniog (Breconshire) | county | 1955-2003 | ||
3 | Ceredigion [Antiquarian] | county | 1951-2001 | multiple titles for county | |
4 | Ceredigion [Historical] | county | 2002-2004 | multiple titles for county | |
5 | Flintshire Historical Society Publications | county | 1911-1975 | multiple titles for county | |
6 | Flintshire Historical Society Journal | county | 1977-2003 | multiple titles for county | |
7 | Gower | area | 1948-2005 | ||
8 | Gwent Local History | county | 1976-2006 | ||
9 | Montgomeryshire Collections | county | 1944-2002 | ||
10 | Morgannwg (Glamorgan) | county | 1957-2004 | ||
11 | The Pembrokeshire Historian | county | 1959-1981 | ||
12 | Radnorshire Society Transactions | county | 1931-2004 | ||
13 | Publications of the South Wales Record Society | area | 1987-1994 | ||
14 | |||||
15 | Archaeologia Cambrensis | national | 1900-1999 | (also has older volumes from 1846) | |
16 | Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion | national | 1900-2004 | ||
17 | Llafur (Welsh labour/people's history) | national | 1972-2004 | ||
18 | National Library of Wales Journal | national | 1939-2006 | ||
19 | Journal of Welsh Ecclesiastical History | national | 1984-1992 | multiple titles | |
20 | Journal of Welsh Religious History | national | 1993-2004 | multiple titles | |
21 | Welsh History Review | national | 1960-2000 | ||
22 | Welsh Music History | national | 1996-2002 |
1 | Name | URL |
|---|---|---|
2 | Bedfordshire Historical Record Society | |
3 | Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society | |
4 | Devon and Cornwall Record Society | |
5 | Hampshire Record Society | |
6 | Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire | |
7 | Record Society for the Publication of Original Documents relating to Lancashire and Cheshire | |
8 | Lincoln Record Society | |
9 | London Topographical Society | |
10 | Middlesex County Records Society | |
11 | Montgomeryshire Collections | |
12 | Oxford Historical Society | |
13 | Somerset Record Society | |
14 | Southampton Record Society | |
15 | Staffordshire Record Society | |
16 | Surrey Record Society | |
17 | Sussex Record Society | |
18 | Historical Society of West Wales |