Mike, I am definitely talking about Street Directories, not Trade Directories, although I agree these Street Directories usually contain a section we would now call Yellow Pages. The Street Directories in the UK list every house by street & house number giving the head of each household. They do not usually mention the occupation, but in some cases they do, particularly when a trade such as shopkeeping is carried out on the premises. As I mentioned, I have the Street Directories for 1920 & 1928 & my grandfather appears in the 1928 (and in the subsequent directories I have) as being resident at 33 Pembroke Street & like other people in the street has no occupation against the entry. Regards Geoff Morse Hitchin, Herts ---------------------------------------- > Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:24:48 +0200 > From: fredbonzo@iafrica.com > To: eng-wiltshire@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [ENG-WILTSHIRE] Swindon street directories 1920 - 1928 > > On 2011/04/29 11:55, Geoff Morse wrote: >> > It's my belief that you misunderstand what Street Directories contain. They were > basically the Yellow Pages of their day, and listed tradesmen and other > important local officials. If your grandfather was a Railway Signalman, then he > is very unlikely to appear in a Trade Directory. > > Perhaps you were asking about the Electoral Roll? Or (unlikely) a Telephone > Directory? > > -- > Regards, > Mike Fry > Johannesburg >

Geoff You must be referring to the Post Office Directories. They cover all heads of households in a town. Adrian Yorkshire ----- Original Message ----- From: "Geoff Morse" <geoff_morse@hotmail.com> To: "ENG-WILTSHIRE Mailing List" <eng-wiltshire@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, April 29, 2011 3:13 PM Subject: Re: [ENG-WILTSHIRE] Swindon street directories 1920 - 1928 > > Mike, I am definitely talking about Street Directories, not Trade > Directories, although I agree these Street Directories usually contain a > section we would now call Yellow Pages. The Street Directories in the UK > list every house by street & house number giving the head of each > household. They do not usually mention the occupation, but in some cases > they do, particularly when a trade such as shopkeeping is carried out on > the premises. As I mentioned, I have the Street Directories for 1920 & > 1928 & my grandfather appears in the 1928 (and in the subsequent > directories I have) as being resident at 33 Pembroke Street & like other > people in the street has no occupation against the entry. > > Regards > Geoff Morse > Hitchin, Herts > > ---------------------------------------- >> Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:24:48 +0200 >> From: fredbonzo@iafrica.com >> To: eng-wiltshire@rootsweb.com >> Subject: Re: [ENG-WILTSHIRE] Swindon street directories 1920 - 1928 >> >> On 2011/04/29 11:55, Geoff Morse wrote: >>> >> It's my belief that you misunderstand what Street Directories contain. >> They were >> basically the Yellow Pages of their day, and listed tradesmen and other >> important local officials. If your grandfather was a Railway Signalman, >> then he >> is very unlikely to appear in a Trade Directory. >> >> Perhaps you were asking about the Electoral Roll? Or (unlikely) a >> Telephone >> Directory? >> >> -- >> Regards, >> Mike Fry >> Johannesburg >> > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ENG-WILTSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Adrian, The copies I have are titled The North Wilts Directory and Year Book For 1920 46th Year of Publication Published by the North Wilts Herald, Bath Road, Swindon and The Swindon & District Directory and Year Book For 1928 54th Year of Publication Published by the Swindon Press Ltd, 100 Victoria Road which always was, & maybe still is, the address of the local paper although I'm not too worried about where the information comes from. I assume there are Post Office, Pigots and Kelly's directories for around the same period. I just wondered if anyone happened to have a copy of any of them for the period 1920 to 1928. Geoff ---------------------------------------- > From: adrianp7@talktalk.net > To: eng-wiltshire@rootsweb.com > Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:01:13 +0100 > Subject: Re: [ENG-WILTSHIRE] Swindon street directories 1920 - 1928 > > Geoff > > You must be referring to the Post Office Directories. They cover all heads > of households in a town. > > Adrian > Yorkshire >