| What is a Post Office Directory? These documents were created by the Post Office as a sort of encyclopaedia of the day. In those days you could address a letter to Mr. James Hillier, Bath and it would get delivered to the right house. Why? Because of these documents! You can look up a name in an alphabetical list and get the address they lived at. Having got all, this data, they also arranged it in street order to produce a Street Directory and a Village Directory that lists all those living in each house in surrounding villages. So not only can you look up a person, but you can also look up who their neighbours were. Similarly, you can see who lived in any house, in case you want to trace all the occupants of a particular house. |
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What's in a Post Office Directory? Name Directories and Street and Village directories are the main part of each book, but they contain a wealth of other information. Advertisements. Everything from getting a carriage repaired, painted or cleaned, to getting the new fangled electricity installed in your home. Apart from being an enlightening reflection on days gone by, they can be used to embellish your own family history with your ancestors personal trade advertisements. Social Information. Masses of information on everything from Hackney Carriage fees, times of postal collections at each box throughout the area, who ran the local gaol, and the names of all sorts of officials. |
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