Genealogy Chat

It is so nice to have relatives who were not ag labs. It makes family history a lot easier. Trade directories were private listings magazines of local business men usually published about every five years. They usually cover a large city or county a sort of early yellow pages as Sam said. Ancestry have a few trade directories. I managed to find my paternal great grandmother who was an innkeeper and my maternal great grandfather who was a shoe maker in somerset in 1890.s. I found details of my relatives villages and details like post times and train times also population. Normally only men are listed. My great grandmother had the pub lisence as she was a widow. Some of my mothers relatives were farmers and I have found details of number of employees and acreage owned. I also found details of a relative who was a stone mason. The earliest list of tradesmen I found though no help to me was in Bristol library from about 1608. It lists people who had to supply the king with arms or soldiers in the event of a war. My grandfather was a grocer and I found he advertised regularly in the local paper. It might be worth contacting the local Manchester paper as they probably carried Estate agent adds. Good luck.

Thanks for the in-put everyone. As I am in California (originally Blackpool) I will have to rely on the internet. Thanks again, I will give it a go ! Margaret.

No use for recent dates, but there are some historical directories online for areas including London and Liverpool. Not all places and all decades are covered, but you might get lucky. You can search under specific trades or by surname and the street directories allow you to search by address. http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/index.asp A tip: when you choose the decade and area and get the directory you want, click on 'browse directory' and enter a page number in the box - then you can choose higher or lower page numbers until you find what you want. nell

Hi there, If you are looking for an Estate Agent in Manchester, then I think your best option is an old telephone book. Manchester Central Library have quite a collection of these. If you contacted them, I am sure that they would have a look for you. Mary

Hi Margaret I'm no expert but I believe a Trade Directory was a bit like the Yellow Pages is today, it listed all the business and companys in a particular area. They also gave information about the tiwn/area that it covered which helps us to see what a particular area was like at a particular time. There are some online, try www.historicaldirectories.org although I don;t know if there are any for the time frame you are looking for. Sam x

I noticed somebody mentioned finding someone one a Trades Directory. What is it? Would it be useful to find someone who was an Estate Agent in Manchester in 1940/1950 ? Any help would be most welcome. Thanks, Margaret