Genealogy Chat

My ancestor named John Brinkworth was a Shoemaker around 1840 in Wiltshire, so please let me know you can find anything, as it will aid me with my search for him on the 1841 and possibly even the 1851 census, providing he was still in business or even alive at that time. BTW, I can't get that directory site to work properly right now.

Cobblers! My 1830 Pigots has a section for Boot and Shoe Makers in each town/village (not all villages are included, which makes the directory of even less value - but interesting reading nontheless)

Thanks David (Cooper?)! All my ancestors were ag. labourers too, so I doubt business directories will ever come in handy for me either. BTW, do you think a shoemaker might be listed in an old directory?

The directories that I have do not have a general residential section other than gentry and professions. In any event they are not centrally indexed so you'd probably be in the same position as with the census having to check through each parish for the names. I've not found any of my ancestors, ag labs and the like, in these directories.

The whole point of finding out my ancestor's address from a possible directory would be to aid me on the 1841 Census. Without an address, it may be too difficult for anyone to perform a lookup.

Giles What about the 1841 and 185 census? You could ask for a lookup on here on the Records Board. Lynne

I did a search on that site, but can't tell which directories are residential, rather than commercial/business directories.

Thanks Nell! But how reliable are those directories, and would I be able to find my ancestor like I can easily find them on the 1881 Census, despite them not having a business or anything?

Some counties and some decades are here: www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/index.asp you can choose a page number in the relevant directory and then go backwards/forwards to find what you want. There are residential directories and commercial ones and you can search by name or address. If its not here, you could google to see if what you want is online. Otherwise, you'd need to contact the relevant local history centre/records office. Nell

Worcestershire. However, my ancestor there never owned a business or anything, so was there an equivalent of today's electoral roll, back in the mid-1800s? To put it simple, did the majority of people living throughout the country have their names and addresses listed in a directory as early as 1840 - 1850?

Giles Which county are you wanting to search? Vikki xx

Is it possible to find an ancestor's name and residential address within a directory from the mid 1800s? If so, are these directories available online?