The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society may soon begin a significant new chapter: A special meeting of members is to be held today to consider a plan to sell off its headquarters building at 122 E. 58th St., where it has been located since 1929.

The NYG&B’s president and chief executive officer, William Johns, said the society’s board on September 14 unanimously approved the sale of the building, a research trove for American, New York, and family history that is the society’s primary asset.

He said it was the feeling of many that saving the society was more important than the issue of where it is located.

According to Eastman’s Online Genealogical Newsletter, the NYG&B chairman, Henry C.B. Lindh, said funds were needed to upgrade the building and that its sale would allow the NYG&B to devote resources “to the research and education that are the core” of its mission.

According to Eastman’s newsletter, the Hampton Synagogue has offered $24 million for the building and would use it as a synagogue. Rabbi Marc Schneier, the synagogue’s founding rabbi, could not be reached yesterday for comment. The Hampton Synagogue purchased an adjacent building to the east of the NYG&B, and has rented space in the NYG&B building in recent years for synagogue services.

A former society director and board member, Carolyn Stifel, said the NYG&B has been “an intrinsic part of the city.” She said the society “has held a leading role in preserving the historical and manuscript material of family history and genealogical resources.”

“It’s probably the single most concentrated collection of New York State and Middle Atlantic genealogical materials in the nation,” a NYG&B member, John Mauk Hilliard, said. “Its manuscript collection is irreplaceable and priceless. Its portrait collection is historically and artistically significant.” He said its heraldic materials also are very important.

The society currently has many educational programs, a substantial research library, and maintains a popular Web site for conducting genealogical research, nyfamilyhistory.org.

Another NYG&B member, Donald Hoff of Elmira, N.Y., said the sale of the building was probably a good idea, that updated technology in a new setting could be an improvement for research.

“If anything should endanger the preservation and perpetuation of that collection as a whole,” Mr. Hilliard cautioned, “it would be a great blow to all students of genealogy in this part of the world.”

Various hereditary societies whose office are located in the building, such as the Huguenot Society of America, the Holland Society of America, and Society of Mayflower Descendents in the State of New York, are considering alternative locations in the city. One such association, the New England Society in the City of New York, in April moved “literally three blocks away,” a society board member, Gail Gaston, said. She said its new location on Madison Avenue was larger.

“Nonprofit genealogical societies play a critical role in conveying highquality content for people researching family history,” the New England Historic Genealogical Society’s president and chief executive officer, D. Brenton Simons, said. “The NYG&B has a distinguished history and a very bright future as one of the leading institutions in our field.” He said the New England Historic Genealogical Society has had eight locations in its history. The society was founded in 1845, making it the oldest in the nation.

Over the years, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society has had five previous addresses. Founded in 1869, its first permanent home was at Mott Memorial Hall, at 64 Madison Ave. In 1888, the Society moved to the Berkeley Lyceum Building at 19 W. 41st St., before moving to 23 W. 44th St. and later to 226 W. 58th St., between Broadway and Seventh Avenue. In the late 1920s, it moved to East 58th Street.