We would be very grateful if you could make a donation to the society.

We are a not for profit charity and rely on memberships, donations and profits from bookshop sales to fund the continual programme of projects which will make more information available to the general public for the counties we cover, ie Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire, including Birmingham.

The information below tells you more about the society and should you wish to join, please go to the membership section on the home page of our shop.

Area of Interest

Our Society is the principal genealogical and heraldic society for the counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.  This includes the areas of ‘old’ counties, as they existed before the major boundary changes of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, as well as the areas brought into them by those changes.  In particular the modern metropolitan boroughs of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton (collectively known as the West Midlands) are within our area.

Objects

The society’s objects (more specifically stated in the Constitution) are to promote, maintain and encourage

·         Good practice

·         Research

·         Preservation and transcription of records

·         Publication and dissemination of good practice

·         Collaboration with other interested bodies

in relation to genealogy and heraldry, especially within our area.

Overall purpose

Our overall purpose is to help our members to carry out their own research into their family histories within our area.

CLASSES OF MEMBERSHIP

Individual membership, joint membership, associate membership (under 21 years).

Joint membership is for more than one person living at the same address.

Overseas members may opt to pay a supplement to have their journal delivered by airmail.

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP

Being a member of a Society of approximately 3,000 members, worldwide, who have wide ranging interests in genealogy and heraldry, and particular interests in more of ‘our’ counties.

Correspondence Secretaries

When you join the Society you will be assigned to one of our correspondence secretaries who will

Be responsible for all routine correspondence with you

Offer you (on request) general advice and guidance on your searches in our area, and if necessary suggest names of local searchers who will carry out searches for you at reasonable fees. Ensure that you receive your copies of the following publications.

The Midland Ancestor (4 issues each year)

You may list your ‘Members Interests’ once free of charge in this journal when you join the Society, or at a later date if you prefer.  After that you may submit brief advertisements of other interests for a small fee as often as you wish (subject to space limitations in each issue).

Members Handbook

This contains details of the Society and its services and information about local record offices.

Annual Programme of meetings of all branches and special interest groups.  We have branches in

Burton-on-Trent, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton (Staffordshire)

Birmingham, Kenilworth (Warwickshire)

Bromsgrove, Stourbridge, Worcester (Worcestershire)

London

Our special interest group, The Heraldry Group, meet in Birmingham.

Publications List

Lists all the Society’s publications (in print, microfiche and CD). Eventually all our publications will be available from this e-Shop. Meanwhile, they can be seen at  our Bookshop

In addition our Publications Sales Officer can obtain for you any heraldic and genealogical publication on general release in the United Kingdom.

SEARCH SERVICES

Depending on your interests and needs you may also be able to make use of

Link Service (Voluntary Exchange)

This is a service which depends entirely upon the voluntary efforts of members who undertake to carry out simple research at record offices local to them in exchange for similar research being undertaken on their behalf at another record office.  The exchange does not have to be direct.  It is not unusual for A to research for B who researches for C who researches for A, and so on.  Many overseas members have received help through this service.

Marriage and Burial and other Indexes (Low cost service)

We maintain and continue to build Marriage and Burial Indexes for Birmingham, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.  (Birmingham is treated separately from Warwickshire in this context simply because it is so large).  We have a variety of other specialist indexes, which are listed in the members Handbook.