Library Collections
Important Notice About the Library Service
The Lord Coutanche Library will be closed from Monday, 17th May to Friday, 4th June for essential re-organisation. From Monday, 7th June the Library will be open to MEMBERS ONLY from 10 am to 2 pm (closed afternoons) as a temporary measure until the appointment of a Librarian.
Non Members wishing to access the Library may do so, subject to availability, by requesting an appointment in writing. Access to closed shelf items will be strictly by prior arrangement in writing until further notice. Readers will be requested to present their Société Membership cards on signing into the Library.
A summary of the resources held in the Société Jersiaise Library:
Printed Material | Family and Other Archives | Family History | Maps and Prints
Printed Material
- The latest local publications and periodicals including selected items from the other Channel Islands and neighbouring mainland areas
- Guide books in English and French from 1822
- Histories of the Channel Islands from earliest times to the present
- Almanacs from 1785 (in English and French), which include partial lists of residents by address and/or trade, diaries of local events, officers of local garrisons and militia, shipping, etc.
- Newspapers from 1784 (in English and French); indexed scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings (including the Jersey Evening Post)
- Société Jersiaise and States of Jersey publications
- Literature in Jèrriais
Family and Other Archives
- Family papers and correspondence
- Business records
- Authors' manuscripts and research notes (e.g. Philip Ahier, G.R. Balleine, William Davies, E.T. Nicolle, Joan Stevens, Marguerite Syvret)
- German Occupation collection including books, Evening Post 1940-45 (in English and German), files of ephemera, contemporaneous diaries and reports, Biberach Camp register, German military occupation plans of island defences
Family History
- Family trees and published family histories
- Indices to the P.R.O. Census returns for 1841 and each decade to 1891, which are held on microfilm
- Parish church records (c.1540-1842) : indices to existing registers of baptisms, marriages and burials (incomplete). Listes du Rat (parish rate lists) from 1858; electoral lists
- Index of civil registers (1842-c.1900) for births, marriages and deaths held on microfiche
- Jersey Merchant Seamen's Benefit Society registers (1835-1900). Lists names of seamen and ships registered in Jersey and amounts paid into fund. Incomplete; some on microfilm
Maps and Prints
- Maps of St Helier and the Channel Islands from c.1300, both originals and copies of those held elsewhere; plans and drawings
- Original prints of the Channel Islands (e.g. Harwood, Le Capelain, M. Moss, P.J. Ouless, Rock & Co. etc.)