Local Studies

General information

The official Local Studies collection for the Borough of Swindon.

Key resources:

Complete GRO index of Births, Marriages & Deaths, for the whole of England and Wales (1837-1999)
GRO Overseas index
International Genealogical Index (The LDS or Mormon Index)
Census records (1841-1901) with surname and street indexes where available
Parish registers, bishops transcripts and surname transcriptions where available (from 1538)
Free access to Ancestry, British Newspaper Archive, Find My Past and other great online resources.
All available local parish magazines, newsletters and journals, including staff magazines for the Great Western Railway, Wills Tobacco, Garrards and Vickers.
Complete microfilm run of all local newspapers, including the Swindon Evening Advertiser (from 1854) and the North Wilts Herald (from 1861).
4 microfiche readers and 3 microfilm/fiche readers with printing
Large collection of all available books, scrapbooks, leaflets, reports, and other ephemera.
Voters lists & electoral rolls for Swindon and Thamesdown (from 1945 to date)
Street, trade and telephone directories (including Kellys 1848-1939)
Local authors collection with an emphasis on Alfred Williams and Richard Jefferies.
Extensive collection of local maps (including earliest Ordnance Survey maps, geological, GOAD, political, street maps - even Soviet "Red Army" maps)
Large historical photographic collection (over 50,000 items)
Fully searchable catalogue