Genealogy Enquiries Database Search

This database contains nearly 6,000 records of information and links (where available) to obituaries of RSC (and precursor society) members published since 1841.  It also contains obituaries and historical profiles of other notable chemists who may not have been members of the RSC.

Using the Database

When performing a search, it is often sufficient to enter the surname.  Please be aware that variations in the spelling of a surname may occur, for example, 'Allen' may be spelt as 'Alan' or 'Allan'. You can enter a partial search, e.g. 'All' but this may bring up additional results where 'all' occurs in any part of the surname, e.g. 'Abrahall'.  Wildcards (*) are not used. Checking Yes in 'All fields must match' is the equivalent of putting 'And' between your search terms, unchecking it is the same as putting 'Or'.

For example:

Surname: Faraday
Forename(s): Michael

Clicking Yes on 'All fields much match' will only return those records where both 'Faraday' and 'Michael' are contained in the relevant fields of the record, generally returning a more precise result.

Clicking 'No' will return all the records where either 'Faraday' or 'Michael' are contained in the relevant fields of the record, generally returning a greater number of results.

The Results

The top of the results page will tell you how many results have been found.  Each result relates to one reference found, please note that one person may have an obituary in more than one publication and so there can be more than one result returned for an individual.

Where a URL (website link) is produced, clicking on this will open a new page containing a link to the obituary.  Many of these are free to view but some may require payment.  If there is no URL produced, please contact the library to find out how acquire a copy of the obituary.

Further Research

If you require further research or advice on your search, please contact us by e-mail or by using the Library Enquiries Form.