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This
is a series of full-text facsimiles of Stockport & District
historical directories. Local directories, sometimes they are
called trade directories, are a vital source of biographical information
for local historians, family historians and genealogists.
Stockport's
Heritage Menu
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Early
directories are usually very rare, and few copies survive outside
the holdings of specialist libraries. For example, only two known
original copies of the 1907 Stockport Directory have survived
in Stockport, and these are extremely fragile. To make this fascinating
directory information as widely available as possible in Stockport
MBC, and accessible to readers in the country at large and overseas,
it has been decided to digitise these information-rich sources
and place them on a free web site for public interest, historical
research and the simple enjoyment of times past.
From
small beginnings at the end of the 18th Century local directories
in the North West of England grew from tiny books to elephant
sized volumes by the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th
Centuries. In these later directories it is usually possible to
trace most, or a large proportion, of the heads of households
in a locality, and this can be particularly valuable in the years
after 1901 when the Census Enumeration Returns are not available.
Contradictorily, family historians often find it easier to trace
people during the 19th Century than more recent ancestors of the
20th Century, and the first four directories in the series (1902,
1905, 1907 and 1910) will help begin to deal with this particular
research problem. The 1907 Directory was chosen first because
the original typefaces are clear, and the arrangement of the volume
is helpful and straightforward. The directory for the year 1910
has now been added and the directory 1905 will be added in the
near future.
To
look at an old directory is like taking a slice in time out of
the past, and it becomes possible to look at a year and say that
this book explains what it was like to live there and who inhabited
the place. They are not just information sources, although that
is their primary purpose, and browsing through them is both a
pleasure and a historical experience.
If
you have any comments or suggestions please let me have your views:
David
Reid: Local Heritage Librarian, Stockport Central Library
Email: david.reid@stockport.gov.uk
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