| Please read the following press
release from: Paul Lewis
Senior Marketing Manager. Ancestry.co.uk (Note from
FH4All editor: In my opinion Ancestry.co.uk is the best online
resource available to family historians. Ancestry.co.uk just keeps getting
better!) Subscribe or take a free trial here:
Ringing the Changes with our new
British Phone Books Collection 1880-1984
As a family history research source, Telephone
Directories and Phone Books have been largely overlooked-not surprising
given that the fact that they have been mostly consigned to the dusty back
shelves of the archives. As a result, few will be aware of their richness
as a family history research resource. That is until now, as
Ancestry.co.uk announce the arrival of the first release of our
British Phone Book 1880-1984 collection
Due to their frequency of their updating, Telephone
Directories and Phone Books provide an unrivalled research resource in
tracing changing family circumstances, both social and geographic at
regular intervals.
Typically, Telephone Directories were updated every 12-18 months from the
mid 1900s onwards.
You'll find information on where your ancestors were
living. Indeed telephone ownership in itself is highly revealing in
establishing class and social prominence of your ancestors too. So, even
if you don't find your ancestors listed in the early directories, this in
itself is very telling in terms of establishing the social status of your
ancestors too.
From the structure of the directories themselves, you'll
also be able to get a very rich picture of the areas in which your
ancestors were living and for the types of concerns which would of
occupied their every day lives. For example, from the very first issue,
the changing nature of local and national advertisements (from local milk
supplies to major utility suppliers) provide for a fascinating picture of
economic and industrial development of Britain.
This initial release (further releases to follow)
primarily covers London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent Middlesex and Surrey,
but due to lower ownership levels you may well find information covering
many other parts of the British Isles too within the early years of this
release.
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