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Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 2002-04 > 1018455365


From: "Ian Hunter" <>
Subject: RE: Possibly my last directory lookup offer
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 17:16:11 +0100
In-Reply-To: <vsaZhGBb7Ft8EAnD@neep.demon.co.uk>


Rod and all. All I'm trying to emphasise is they don't include everyone
within the towns. I'm trying to defer the people who just "know" their
ancestors came from "near Colchester, some time in the 19th century" and
such.

I must disagree your suggestion that ALL the directories list ALL the
heads of households though. What are you trying to do to me?

Let's take Easthorpe in 1862 - 144 population and 12 people listed. In
some of towns in some of the directories there are no people listed.

Have to agree about the wealth of information on the towns. So
intriguing to see the development of some of them.

Cheers

Ian Pubby Hunter

Essex Pubs at: http://www.essexpubs.net

I use Archive CD Books to help with my research
http://www.archivecdbooks.org

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rod Neep [mailto:]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 4:49 PM
> To:
> Subject: Re: Possibly my last directory lookup offer
>
>
> In article <000001c1e097$72eb6ec0$>, Ian Hunter
> <Ianpubbyhu > writes
> >Right, they turned up :O)
> >
> >I have the following Essex directories from which I'll lookups for a
> >little while.
> >
> >To recapitulate, the Essex directories are basically trade
> directories
> >with a few posh people thrown in. In MOST cases (from 1862) there is
> >also a list of all the posh people (after the town listings)
> and then a
> >list of the tradesfolk BY TRADE.
>
> I really don't understand why people perpetuate this *myth*
> about directories Ian?
>
> Sorry... but I am going to disagree with you, and take you to
> task on this one ;-)
>
> I just opened up one of the Essex Directory CDs and went to a
> page at random and occupations include:
>
> jobbing gardener
> oilman
> carman
> sanitary inspector
> clerk
> house decorator
> dairyman
> carpenter
> bill poster
> plumber
> painter
> tinplate worker
> whitesmith
> blacksmith
> chimney sweeper
>
> all one just half of one page.
>
> The population of Chelmsford for example, was 5,403 (at the
> time of this directory), and the Chelmsford section of the
> directory contains over 500 people listed in the "private
> residents" section, (which you mistake as being all posh
> people) and over 700 in the section listing people with trades.
>
> Bearing in mind that the directory lists *heads of
> households*, not wives or children or lodgers)... then 1200
> people listed in the town in the directory represents more
> than a quarter of the total population! It seems reasonable
> to assume that the other three quarters of the population
> (not included) are wives and children?
>
> The other thing about directories that people miss out on is
> that they contain a huge amount of information other than
> lists of names. The Chelmsford section that I am looking at
> for example, has five pages of small print in two columns
> which describes the place, its history, facilities, churches,
> schools, institutions, industries, markets, hospitals,
> cemeteries, public buildings, almshouses, mail, parcels,
> officers of the town, public establishments, the Chelmsford
> Union (workhouse), registrars of births marriages and deaths,
> school committee, newspapers (9 of them), railways,
> conveyance (coaches and carriers).
>
> OK... so that was a large town.... I'll now look at a tiny
> *hamlet* called Chadwell Street (a hamlet in the parish of
> Barking) with a total population of 213. . There are 41
> people listed... just short of a quarter of the population...
> ask yourself what is the average family size. 41 households?
> Sure, wives, children and lodgers are not included in directories.
>
> Again... there is an excellent description of the place and
> its facilities.... anyone whose ancestors were in that hamlet
> or the surrounding area will be please to learn that there
> were two schools
> there:
> Chadwell (mixed), built in 1896, where Henry Bateman was the
> schoolmaster and Mrs. Elizabeth Bateman was the mistress.
> Chadwell (infants), built in 1894, average attendance 85,,
> Miss. E. Cooke infants' mistress. The amount of detail is
> superb... there was a wall letter box at Little Heath,
> cleared at 8 and 11.30 a.m. weekdays, and 9 am Sundays.
> Letters are delivered at 8.30am. The hamlet had 9 farmers, 3
> market gardeners, surprisingly only two pubs, (although
> another man Fraser L MACHELL is listed as a beer retailer).
> If you want a dress made, then go to Mrs ROGERS at Railway
> Terrace, Thomas BROWN will take care of ironwork and shoeing
> horses, and for odd jobs around the home and garden, see
> Samuel SAYERS.
>
> >Sorry to spell this all out to those of you aware of it, but
> it has to
> >be said :O)
>
> I think that the above examples clarify what needs to be said too?
>
> >I have the following Essex directories from which I'll lookups for a
> >little while.
>
> That is a generous but *mammoth* task Ian! Best of luck
> <grin>. Finding people in the Commercial Directory pages is
> really easy if you know their trade (that section of the book
> is like the yellow pages). But finding odd people in towns or
> tiny hamlets in the whole of Essex calls for some serious
> research and painstaking reading of the book.
>
> Regards
> Rod

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