• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Directory: Robson's 1839 Directory

Peter Walker

gone but not forgotten
Robson's 1839 edition seems to me the best of the early directories, with a street-by-street list as well as the alphabetical lists of firms, both by name and classified trade. Also it fits in exactly with the excellent map published that year by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, which John Houghton posted a few weeks ago.
I know people have been busy transcribing census returns on to Excel databases, but am wondering if anyone has done the same or is doing so for directories. I have made a start, and have completed all the surnames and company/institution names beginning with A, all 355 of them, in just under a week.
Question 1
Before I go any further, can I ask if anyone has done this already.
The Column headings I've used are First name, Surname (or firm or institution name), House No., Street name, and district (often a major road nearby).
Question 2
Will my Microsoft Excel software be able to handle a file of that size? It would be very nice to be able to sort by street, name and trade. I've also thought of adding a new column for trade groups (like the modern Yellow Pages and Thomson directories do) because the Victorian description of trades was a bit irregular.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Peter
 
Pete, Exel will handle it as I have a huge Data base I share with others and we all chip in an update it
(Army Numbers no intrest to you)
 
Hi Peter, just finished going through the Robsons directory online, you can see them digitally now from Leicester University, will put the web page up, you can get into all the counties of England, they also do Kellys etc, worth a look
:flower: :cat:
 
Take a peep at this site
Edit Link removed as it only displays advertising.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks Crom and Loisand. I didn't know about the Leicester University site - it's fantastic, isn't it. Having the Robson 1839 on-line is certainly cheaper than buying a CD which is what I did, but I can use my CD rather more easily. The reason for putting the material on to a database is that you can sort by names, trades and by streets, whereas the original directories are a bit more difficult to follow sometimes.
Many thanks again. I think I'll try to carry on, and see how it goes. Six months work I hear. I must remember to back up carefully and scramble with extreme care, after what I did to my pub database last year.
Peter
 
I certainly did mess it up. Now I've got about 25 different versions, all different, and I don't know which is the best, or what stuff is unspoiled.
I didn't do it in the pub though, as the stuff is on my big AppleMac machine, and you don't carry that round with you.
I've made some progress this week, but spent a day in Brum, and another day was taken up with the carpet cleaners. But I got to Brentnall this afternoon, so it's coming on. I've done 13 pages out of 93, or nearly one-seventh of the total, so I should have it done by Summer.
Peter
 
Back
Top