Historic phonebooks go online
UK phonebooks dating to 19th century put online by ancestry.co.uk
Wednesday, 28, Nov 2007 08:11
British phonebooks stretching back to the last century are going online to help people learn more about their ancestors.
More than 1,780 BT phonebooks dating to 1880 have been digitised by ancestry.co.uk.
The website says the project, which took more than two years to complete, will allow family researchers to trace where their ancestors lived at a given time and place.
More than 280 million names and numbers are featured on the database, including one or two famous ones.
Notable Britons having their phone numbers and address revealed include former prime ministers David Lloyd George and Harold Macmillan, suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst and novelist Evelyn Waugh.
Simon Harper, managing director of ancestry.co.uk, said that the project provided "solid evidence" of where people's ancestors may have lived.
"It was an enormous undertaking to scan and index the 1,780 phone books, however we believe that this resource will be of great interest and use to people around the world," he explained.
Sian Wynn-Jones, BT collections heritage manager, commented: "Digitising the phone book collection supports BT's commitment to preserving and providing public access to these important historical sources.
"We are delighted that this project is now complete and the collection available online for everyone to use and enjoy."
Included in the collection is Britain's first national phonebook, which dates back to 1896.
But while the phonebook had more than 80,000 entries, the country's very first set of listings, which was restricted to London, had just 248 entries.
Victorian telephone etiquette (according to early phonebooks)
Speak clearly and directly into the transmitter - the lips should be almost touching the mouthpiece and there is rarely need to shout.
Answer promptly and announce your identity at once upon receiving a call.
Extend the exchange officers the same courtesy and consideration that you would expect from them.