Club records

I was remembering recently just how passionately my grandfather was into his football (soccer), which led me to wonder about the possibility of clubs keeping old records of players (and associated people).

My grandfather and his family left England for NZ when he was a baby, but because he loved football (as a local-team player as well as a tv fan of English games) I wonder whether this was picked up from his ancestors. I don't recall ever hearing whether his father played, but does anyone think it is possible that clubs might have any old records/photos/etc?

In this instance I am talking pre-1920's, but there were cousins around still in the 1940s so its possible that at least one of them was into the sport.

I know from our local historical society records we have documents from now-defunct clubs and societies (etc) - one day I am hoping to transcribe these as I'm sure they will contain snippets of research gold. Would it perhaps be more likely that any archival material would be held by the local historical society or museum, rather than the club (if indeed it still exists today)?

 

My wife's grandfather and his brother both played for several local small time teams as well as Derby County and Nottingham Forest (his brother only in this case) from just before the First World War (the small local teams) and from after the end of the war to the mid 1920's. Neither of the larger clubs have any records to speak of for this period but for both teams there are several books available listing the records going back to their start in the Major leagues but only for the first team - maybe there is something like that for the teams your family was involved with. Even the smaller teams have big fan bases and books are produced giving quite an amount of information and photos. If the teams are still in existence they may have websites (both official and fan based)which can supply contacts for asking about this type of information.
Searching the local papers at the various record offices and libraries gave a lot of information as well as those available online (British Newspaper Archives, Find My Past etc) - the start of the season editions sometimes list all of the players with some personal information as well.

Good luck with your searches.