diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 0a23680f4d9..8e5b7e2e6a0 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,30 @@
 Lucene Change Log
 $Id$
 
+======================= Trunk (not yet released) =======================
+
+Changes in backwards compatibility policy
+
+Changes in runtime behavior
+
+API Changes
+
+* LUCENE-1925: Make IndexSearcher's subReaders and docStarts members
+  protected; add expert ctor to directly specify reader, subReaders
+  and docStarts.  (John Wang, Tim Smith via Mike McCandless)
+
+Bug fixes
+
+New features
+
+Optimizations
+
+Documentation
+
+Build
+
+Test Cases
+
 ======================= Release 2.9.0 2009-09-23 =======================
 
 Changes in backwards compatibility policy
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java
index fc1a3546504..c1c55c45093 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/IndexSearcher.java
@@ -50,8 +50,11 @@ import org.apache.lucene.util.ReaderUtil;
 public class IndexSearcher extends Searcher {
   IndexReader reader;
   private boolean closeReader;
-  private IndexReader[] subReaders;
-  private int[] docStarts;
+  
+  // NOTE: these members might change in incompatible ways
+  // in the next release
+  protected IndexReader[] subReaders;
+  protected int[] docStarts;
 
   /** Creates a searcher searching the index in the named directory.
    * @throws CorruptIndexException if the index is corrupt
@@ -106,6 +109,19 @@ public class IndexSearcher extends Searcher {
   public IndexSearcher(IndexReader r) {
     this(r, false);
   }
+
+  /** Expert: directly specify the reader, subReaders and
+   *  their docID starts.
+   * 
+   * <p><b>NOTE:</b> This API is experimental and
+   * might change in incompatible ways in the next
+   * release.</font></p> */
+  public IndexSearcher(IndexReader reader, IndexReader[] subReaders, int[] docStarts) {
+    this.reader = reader;
+    this.subReaders = subReaders;
+    this.docStarts = docStarts;
+    closeReader = false;
+  }
   
   private IndexSearcher(IndexReader r, boolean closeReader) {
     reader = r;