Sunday, December 5, 2010

Familyrelatives.com Releases 1,000,000 New UK Post Office & Trade Directories

Here's a press release from FamilyRelatives.com, which was originally published November 12:

Familyrelatives.com today announced the release of over 1 million Post Office records. The exciting new collection is set to grow over the coming months and will prove to be an extremely valuable resource and complement the existing Trade Directories, allowing them to be used side by side. The Post Office collection is, in effect, a Victorian version of today's Yellow Pages covering over 25 counties and major cities of Great Britain spanning nearly a century during Britain’s most prosperous years.

The records hold interesting information of not only ordinary families but also well known past and present companies and high street brands such as Lyons, Marks and Spencer’s and Woolworths, listed as “Toy and Fancy Dealers”.

There are a number of famous names that stand out - residences include Charles Dickens residing at Gads Hill House in Higham, Kent as well as Charles Darwin who was famous for his theories of evolution and wrote The Origin of Species, he is listed as living in Down, Kent as a Private Resident.

The Postal and Commercial Alphabetical Directory, referred to as Kelly’s, contains information organised by County. The early editions, “will be found superior both in quality and extent of information to the Edition previously issued.” The beginnings of these Directories can be attributed to Frederic Kelly when he was appointed “His Majesty’s Inspector of Inland Letter Carriers” at the turn of the 19th century. Kelly established his company and expanded on the original publications and produced directories for a number of UK cities and several other titles.

The earliest directories were published in London where demand for commercial information was greater, followed by other major cities in the United Kingdom. Using Kelly’s association with the Post Office to considerable advantage, he was partnered by Isaac Slater and taking over James Pigot’s in 1853, his market dominance was established so becoming the largest directory publisher in the late nineteenth century.

It is not surprising that these guides were used over 170 years ago by travelling salesmen as reference guides when looking for new trade and opportunities, in effect these Directories were the predecessor to the telephone directory and the Yellow pages.

The format of the publications is split into sections which provides a topographical description of settlements and cities as well as landmarks together with statistical information on the population. Generally alphabetical lists of the Clergy, Gentry, commercial occupations, streets, classified trades and advertisements are published. Many of the later Directories include private residents. An example of the sort of information a Post Office provides is shown below - which includes a fascinating combination of trades including a farmer, a farrier, a boot and shoe man, a beer retailer, and a number of shopkeepers.

Robert Woods a spokesman for Familyrelatives.com said “We are very pleased by the progress our digital archive department is making and we will continue to add further cities and counties covering a larger part of the UK allowing researchers the opportunity to learn what their ancestors were doing over the past 170 years”.

The collection is part of over 700 million historic records available online to all members and visitors by way of an annual subscription of only £30.00 or US$50.00 at www.familyrelatives.com 
Familyrelatives.com has added the following new records

For further information visit http://www.familyrelatives.com

AL, CA, FL, IL, IN, NY, OH, SD, and UT New Pages and Updates

I haven't worked on the website in a while...BUT I realized that I had not listed the new pages and updates for the past few months. Enjoy!

New Pages

Escambia County, Alabama - with one link from the Internet Archive

Wilcox County, Alabama -  with one link from the Internet Archive

Escambia County, Florida - with one link from the Internet Archive

Bartholomew County, Indiana - with one link from the Internet Archive

Kosciusko County, Indiana - with one link from the Internet Archive

Beadle County, South Dakota - with one link from Genealogy Trails


Updates

Alabama - now with 10 out of 67 counties linked

Calhoun County, Alabama - one new link from the Internet Archive

Jefferson County, Alabama - 27 new link from the Internet Archive

Mobile County, Alabama - five new links from the Internet Archive

Yuba County, California - three new links from Yuba Roots

Florida - now with four out of 67 counties linked

Cook County, Illinois - two new links from the Internet Archive and Genealogy Today

Indiana - now with 27 out of 92 counties linked

LaPorte County, Indiana -  one new link from the Internet Archive

Genesee County, New York - two new links from the Internet Archive and Genealogy Today

Hamilton County, Ohio - one new link from the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

South Dakota - now with two out of  66 counties linked

Salt Lake County, Utah - one new link from Genealogy Today


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