Hulley Family History - Trades Directories

These have been compiled by various private companies over the years and follow a general pattern. They include lists of the more well-to-do inhabitants of a town or city, sometimes called a Court Directory; a Trades Directory, being an alphabetical list of trades and occupations, including retailing, e.g. grocers, beer retailers etc. with the names of those persons engaged in each trade. An Alphabetical List, which covers the above two sections as well as other persons in the city or town, was sometimes included. One disadvantage is that public houses are listed alphabetically by name so searching for a publican ancestor could be arduous.

Another important section in a Directory is the Street Directory, which unfortunately is included in only a minority of them. This lists all streets in alphabetical order and shows the inhabitants of the more affluent areas. Unfortunately the index is limited to only a few streets and in those streets to only the more affluent trades and occupations. Hence an ancestor who was a physician or solicitor would always be listed, whilst a carter, calico printer or power loom weaver would always be missing.

It should be realised that there was a time delay between the collection of the information by the compilers and its publication by the publishers. For example Slater's 1851 Directory of Manchester and Salford was probably compiled from information collected in 1849, assembled into page or galley form in early 1850 and printed in late 1850 ready for publication in early 1851. Later editions often carried the same information as those previously published.

The trades directories containing Hulley entries are organised on this site by the year ranges on the left navigation panel.

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