In 2001, South Cheshire Family History Society took over the guardianship of the South East Cheshire Studies Unit (SECSU) where the SCFHS Library had been housed for about three years. The Unit is now called the South Cheshire Studies Centre, reflecting the wider area covered by SCFHS. The South Cheshire Family History Society is now the Crewe Group of the Family History Society of Cheshire.

The SOUTH CHESHIRE STUDIES CENTRE is based at the Alsager Campus of the Manchester Metropolitan University. The transcribing of the census, originally started by SECSU, is continuing, along with other projects being undertaken by volunteers. Due to the vast amount of information waiting to be transcribed, we need more volunteers. Some of the work involves using a computer, but there is plenty of work for those who can't use a computer! Some of our volunteers work at home, others at the Studies Centre.

At SCSC, several areas of the South Cheshire Census from 1851 to 1891 are now available on a computer database. The Centre also holds a photographic archive of South Cheshire as well as many documents and oral histories relating mainly to the Alsager area at present.

Non-members are welcome to visit, but we do appreciate donations to support the work of the South Cheshire Studies Centre. The holdings of the Library are for the use of Family History Society of Cheshire members only. Do call in at the Alsager Campus if you would like to help with the transcribing, or to join FHS-C in order to use the library.

We welcome donations of any books, documents, maps, photographs, etc., that would be of interest to people using the Centre.

The CREWE GROUP LIBRARY is open to members of the Family History Society of Cheshire only. The extensive and ever growing library has books, journals, microfiche, CDs, etc. of interest to both family and local historians. Although we concentrate on Cheshire and the surrounding counties, we have a large amount of material relating to other areas of the UK and to a lesser extent, around the world. We are usually able to assist our members to find relevant information in the library, as well as help with using a computer or microfiche reader, if required.

We hold transcripts and copies of many parish registers, monumental inscriptions and census. There are several databases and indexes, including the British 1881 Census Index, Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19, The Bertram Merrill Marriage Index (with 125,000 Cheshire marriages) and the National Burials Index for England and Wales (with over 5.3 million names).