England Directories: Difference between revisions

There are various types of directories:  

7. By the 1850s a town directory may be expected to contain alphabetical, classified and street lists. By this date also the county directories have alphabetical lists for villages and alphabetical and classified lists for the larger places, with street directories for the largest towns, all followed by consolidated lists of private residents and by trade.  

Jane Norton, the author of the standard guide, wrote that it would be misleading to think of directories "as either precise or accurate" but they form a framework and guide that can be valuable for the genealogist. When tracing people in a town, for instance, it is important to reconstruct their life spans through as many available lists, such as directories and poll books, as possible. The appearance of a name may indicate when a person first appeared in a town; its disappearance may indicate that he or she has died and that a search for a death, burial, or will is appropriate. The person may, however, have gone bankrupt, suggesting a search of the printed lists of bankrupts, of ''The London Gazette'', or in the original records at The National Archives, Kew.  

The descriptions of places in directories, as mentioned below, are usually much more detailed than those in any gazetteer. The directories of the larger towns and most later county directories usually contained folding maps of the areas covered.  

Samuel Lee compiled the first London directory in 1677. He collected the names and addresses of nearly 2,000 merchants and goldsmiths involved in the wholesale trade. These were men who bought and sold in large quantities, and his alphabetical ''Collection of the Names of the Merchants Living In and About the City of London'' [FHL film 950403.1] was intended primarily for these men and their foreign agents. The idea was not tried again until 1734.  

Lists of privatest Office London Suburban Directories addresses first appear in the ''Universal British Directory'' for London in 1790, but are rarely found in provincial directories before the middle of the next century. The first London directory to consist entirely of private residents, Boyle's ''Court Guide'', came out in 1792. It survived until 1925 and with other similar guides provided extensive lists of residents by street, fuller than those in the ''Post Office Directory''.  

In London the inclusion, at the beginning of the ''Post Office Directories'' from 1842 to 1940, of an "Official Directory", provides a valuable list that is often overlooked. The majority of the names found here do not appear in the lists of private residents and although no addresses are given the list is usually followed by details of the personnel in each department and office separately and these show the exact position held. It contained "Persons holding situations under the Crown, in the East India House, the Bank of England, the various Law, City, and all other public officers". A wide range of public servant appears, from the housekeeper and porter in the Cheque Department at the Reduction of National Debt Office, the Under Cooks at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, and the Will Sorters in the Legacy Duty Department, to the Third Class Clerks in the Stationery Office.  

In provincial towns the production of the first directories in the 1760s was also connected with the growth of offices providing commercial information and acting as employment agencies. In 1752 Thomas Juxon of Birmingham, who ran such a place, had many names on his books of those who wished to borrow or lend money, buy land or houses, or employ apprentices or domestic servants, and he compiled a catalogue of the "principal inhabitants of the town, their trades, and where they live, which may be serviceable to strangers". It does not survive, but James Sketchley, who also kept a registry office, published the first directory there in 1763. No copy survives until its third edition in 1767.  

The first directory to cover a whole county, Hampshire in 1784, survives in one copy at Winchester Public Library. The next, Bedfordshire in 1785, was reprinted in 1885.  

William Bailey was the first person to attempt even wider coverage and in 1781 he produced his ''Northern Directory'' that included London and "every principal Town from the River Trent to Berwick-upon-Tweed". He did a similar ''Western & Midland Directory'' in 1783 and a year later, in spite of financial problems, a four-volume ''British Directory'', in which he claimed to have personally visited every house mentioned.  

In the late 19th century specialist directories began to appear. Those that survived a number of years, such as Kelly's ''Directory of Chemists and Druggists'', 1869-1916, and Simpkin Kent's ''The Soap Makers Directory of Great Britain'', 1888-1955, are listed in ''Occupational Sources for Genealogists'' by Stuart Raymond (Federation of Family History Societies, 2nd ed. 1996) [FHL book 942 U23rs].  

The names in many early directories were obtained by personal visits or through local agents paid for the task. Those involved were often local printers and booksellers, registry office keepers, tax and post office officials, policemen, or accountants and agents for insurance companies. Land and house agents and auctioneers would be aware of local changes of address and business. Thomas Pearce, who produced directories in Walsall, had also enumerated two censuses there.  

The number of surviving directories for many places is surprising and as many as possible should be sought out in local and national libraries. The town of Dudley, perhaps the most unhealthy place in the country, with one mile of drains to 36 miles of streets, has 38 directories between 1770 and 1852, an average of one every three years.  

Directories are important not only for their lists of names but for their descriptions of places, often more detailed than those in standard gazetteers. Apart from the physical topography this section usually gives the Hundred, poor law union, deanery, diocese, etc., in which any parish is situated, its area and population, the ownership of the manor and the main land use, details of the history and size of the Anglican church, its main monuments and registers, incumbent, his patron and the value of the living, details of any nonconformist chapels, of public institutions, the type and size of the schools, the cemetery, library, charities, the main seats, hamlets in the parish, the post office, police station, parish clerk, insurance agent, tax collector, carriers, etc. All this information was intended to assist the visitor and may suggest further lines of enquiry to the genealogist.  

The Family History Library has many directories. They are listed in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under one of the following:<br>ENGLAND - DIRECTORIES<br>ENGLAND, [COUNTY] - DIRECTORIES<br>ENGLAND, [COUNTY], [CITY] - DIRECTORIES  

To locate a volunteer who will search some directories for you free of charge, visit http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng and click on [County of your choice], then '''Genealogy''', then '''Look-up Exchange'''.  

Collective directories, covering churches, libraries, museums, newspapers, societies, and a wide variety of other organisations and activities, are also published. See ''Current British Directories ''(Beckenham, Kent, 14th ed. 2003) [FHL has 10th ed. (1985) book 942 E43c]. Many are listed in the section 'Useful Publications' in the invaluable ''British Archives: a guide to archive resources in the United Kingdom'', by Janet Foster and Julia Sheppard (4th ed. 2002) [FHL has 3rd ed. (1995) book 942 J54]. A portal for current directories worldwide is found at http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/directs.htm.  

A national version of the 2008 Telephone Directory containing some 15 million names and addresses from residential and business telephone directories may be found online at http://www.192.com [see the article "Electoral Roll or Registers in England"].  

Jane Elizabeth Norton, ''Guide to the National and Provincial Directories of England and Wales, excluding London, published before 1856 ''(Royal Historical Society, 1950) [FHL book 942 C4rg].<br>Gareth Shaw and Alison Tipper,''British Directories: a bibliography and guide to directories published in England and Wales (1850-1950) and Scotland (1773-1950)'' (Leicester University Press, 1989) [FHL book 942 E43s].<br>Ian Maxted, ''The British National Directories 1781-1819'' (Exeter, 1989) [not in FHL].<br>P.J. Atkins, ''The Directories of London 1677-1977 ''(New York, 1990) [FHL book 942.1/L1 E43a].