Directories

Directories can help us discover where people and businesses were located and to navigate other records such as census schedules. Many of those available for the years listed below have been digitised by the University of Leicester. Some directories feature material about more than one county.

The volume of information included in most directories gave much scope for mistakes and omissions. The shortcomings of Whellen's 'History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Northamptonshire', which was published in 1849, led to the court cases discussed in Caveat Emptor by Susan Ranson [1989] (page 35)

About this section

  • For some items we list, copyright has expired and so they are in the public domain. It is important to comply with copyright restrictions where they do apply.
  • Resources that are housed on the FamilySearch site are indicated by the symbol (**). Before accessing such items it is necessary to create a free FamilySearch account.
  • Many of the books at Internet Archive that were first published less than 100 years ago are available only to ‘borrow’. This means they cannot be downloaded but may be viewed if you create a free Internet Archive account and nobody else is viewing the book at the same time.
  • If you find that an internet link no longer works or its destination has changed for the worse, the Wayback Machine may be able to help you find the material that used to be there.
  • Details of the Record Society’s own publications, many of which are available online free of charge, appear on our Publications page.
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