posted 03-26-2008 12:33 PM            

Many will be familiar with much of this information, but for anyone that uses city directories, it seems pretty interesting anyway. Effective Use of City Directories

posted 04-01-2008 03:40 AM            

Directories can be very useful.

When I was doing some research at Windsor Castle , the archivist produced the petition of the London buckle makers to the Prince of Wale (later George IV) of 1792.I had not even imagined that it still existed. No-one had examined it since it had been catalogued!

It soon became obvious that it was not the popular petition of small buckle makers, but a concerted effort of the great and good of the silver buckle trade to lobby support.

Many of the signatures were readable and recognizable as the top silver buckle makers of the day, but many were not.

Getting back home, with the aid of "The Universal British Directory of 1791" on CD I was able to unravel some of the other names.

Then a pattern emerged. It became obvious that the names had been signed in street order and you could follow the path of the guy collecting the names. This made identification far more certain some of the "dubious" attributions.

A surprise was at the end. The last four signatures were readable but of names unknown to me. Knowing the likely location I finally identified two of them - totally unrelated trades. The collector had obviously reached the end of his list, had had room for four more signatures on his sheet, and just went into four establishments at random to complete his page! Human nature does not change.

A caveat on English Directories. Certainly before 1830 they did not list everyone. I think perhaps that you had to pay to get listed, and certainly many of the more up market silversmiths either refused to pay, requested anonymity, or were perhaps missed.

posted 04-02-2008 07:16 AM            

Try this one - happened at another archive some years ago

ME- "Can you find XYZ123 please"
ARCHIVIST - "I'm sorry it's marked EBM"
ME - "What's EBM"
ARCHIVIST - " Eaten by Mice"

posted 04-02-2008 11:22 AM            

Thank you for your comments about the directory information. There are several write ups around about this subject, but this one seemed to be the best. It would be fantastic to be able to do research at Windsor Castle. We've been there sight seeing a few times, but a little behind the scenes view of the castle would be fantastic. Happily we were there before Queen Elizabeth II's declaration of the "Annus Horriblilis."

posted 04-02-2008 04:34 PM            

Somewhat off topic, I had an after-school job in high school working as a page in the stacks at the main research branch of the NY Public Library. On really slow days they used to have us comb the shelves for misshelved books. I found one once and brought it to my supervisor, who gave a little smile and said, "Come with me, Polly." He strode down the aisles to the press where the book was supposed to be. There was a block of wood in its place with a label saying how long the book had been missing--I think it was about forty years. The look of satisfaction on Mr. K's face when he put the lost book back where it belonged!

posted 04-04-2008 09:05 AM            

Interesting usage of the word "page". In England currently it can be used as a verb, to summon, but as a noun it implies a male. Or has the name Polly different usage in the US?

Clive

posted 04-04-2008 10:51 AM            

Sorry to have gone off topic for so long.