|
Local Studies.
All libraries have books and information about the local area and its history.
The main collection is in the Local Studies Centre at the City
Library and Arts Centre.
The
Local Studies Centre houses the local history collection for the City of
Sunderland, including the whole of the City, that is Hetton, Houghton,
Ryhope etc. The collection
also contains material on the Old County Durham and material of regional
significance.
email: Local.Studies@sunderland.gov.uk
New
Local Studies Fact Sheets
Materials
held by the Local Studies Centre include: -
Books
There
are about 10,000 titles in the Local Collection. Most of the books are for reference only but there is a small
lending collection. The great
bulk of the books are not on the open shelves as many of them are valuable
or very rare and impossible to replace.
The computer catalogue can be used to find any of the books in
stock and they will be brought out for use in the library.
Maps
We
have a large collection of maps which date from 1723, the biggest section
of the map collection being the Ordnance Survey maps. We have all the O.S. maps of the City from the 1st
edition of 1855 to the latest printed editions, also available are the
6-inch to the mile maps of County Durham.
There are geological maps of the area and some specialised plans,
for example the Admiralty charts of the local coastline.
Newspapers
Copies
of the local papers from 1831 onwards are available on microfilm.
We have the Sunderland Echo from 1873 to date and we also keep some
Seaham papers, the Seaham Observer 1858 - 1870 and the Seaham Weekly News
1860 - 1938. If you need to
use the newspapers it is advisable to book a microfilm reader before you
arrive as there is a heavy demand for them, a day or two's notice is all
we require. An index to the
papers is available.
Census
Data
The
library has the census records for the City area for the years 1841, 1851,
1861 and 1891. These are all
available on microfilm. The
1881 census for the whole of Britain is available on C.D.; it is indexed
by name.
Photographs
and Prints
(Examples)
A
collection of photographs and prints is kept in the Local Studies Centre.
The collection is not as strong in old material as it was only
started in 1974. Some of the
illustrations can be copied, although the library does not hold the
copyright for much of the collection.
Trade
and Street directories
There
is a fairly full series of directories starting in 1827.
Electoral
Registers
These
list people entitled to vote in Council or Parliamentary elections, this
means the early ones only list a fraction of the population as most people
did not have the amount of property needed to qualify as a voter.
All women over 21 were not included until after the First World
War.
Corder
Manuscripts
The
Corder Manuscripts are unique to Sunderland; they consist of 38 hand
written volumes, mostly of pedigrees and family history. Some of the volumes give detailed histories of individual
streets and houses; there are also 2 volumes devoted to the history of the
shipbuilding yards.
Genealogical
Resources
The
International Genealogical Index is available on a PC, we also have the
St. Catherine's House index to births, deaths and marriages for England
and Wales 1837 to 1983. The
great majority of the local parish registers are held on microfilm, as are
the registers of the municipal cemeteries from 1856 to 1998.
The section also maintains an index of articles or newspaper
reports on local people known as the Biographical file.
The
BBC - What's on
Celtic
Illuminated Manuscripts
Medieval
English Genealogy
Libraries
Home Page
|
