Scottish Post Office Directories
Those with an interest in genealogy or family history will be familiar with records on the Scotland’s People website, including the Old Parish Records, birth, marriages and deaths and of course the census returns.
My interest in local history has led me to many different types of records for my research. I’d like to share with you some of the records that you may not be so familiar with, which can be used to enhance your family history and fill in some of the gaps.
Scottish Post Office Directories
In the first blog in the series we will look at the old Scottish Post Office Directories.
The National Library of Scotland (NLS) holds an archive of Scottish Post Office Directories and you can access these online . The archive contains over 700 digitized directories spanning from 1773 to 1911. Access them using this link https://digital.nls.uk/directories/
The site provides information on the directories and a useful search function where you can look for any surname, place or date that you are interested in.
You can find names, occupations and addresses for the head of the household or the business owner. Sometimes the trade directories show the residential address of the owner as well as the business address. As the census was taken every 10 years, these directories can contain residential addresses for periods in between the census years. Employment information can also either corroborate or challenge the information you may have found in the census, particularly regarding women business owners.
David Fairbairn
My ancestor, David Fairbairn, was a leather manufacturer and bootmaker in Edinburgh. I knew that he was a leather merchant in Edinburgh living with his wife and seven children in Teviot Place from the 1881 census. An entry from the 1884-85 Post Office Directory, for Edinburgh and Leith, shows that David was a leather merchant and boot-top manufacturer and was now living at 69 Warrender Park Road, with business premises at 5 Fountainbridge.
Also in the directory was an entry for his daughters Isabella and Margaret. in the 1881 census Margaret was listed as a shop-keeper and Isabella as an assistant in a fancy bazar. The 1884-85 directory confirms that they are David’s daughters by the home address, and lists them as joint owners of a bootmakers located at 6 Tobago Street. isabella and Margaret had to give up the premises on David’s premature death in 1887, as he had lent them money for the enterprise and this had to be repaid to his estate.