City Of York Trade Directories 1781-1955

Depending on the years and volumes accessed, expect to see the name of your ancestor and the business with which they were associated. Expect to find business addresses with telephone numbers appearing in twentieth century editions. Perhaps your ancestor also paid for advertising, in which case you may see full, half or quarter page adverts promoting their business. Typically, expect to see the following information about your ancestor:

• Name
• Occupation or trade
• Address

Trade directories can help you track your ancestor across the years and so look out for multiple entries across year books and directories.

You will find the following titles within Findmypast's City of York trade directories' collection:

• Bailey's Northern Directory (York Section)
• Cook's York & District Directory
• Holden's London Directory (York Section)
• Johnson & Tesseyman's City Of York Directory
• Kelly's City of York Directory
• Kelly's Directory (York Section)
• Parsons & White's Directory (York Section)
• Pigot's General Directory (York Section)
• Slater's Commercial Directory of Yorkshire & Lincolnshire
• Stevens's City of York Directory
• Universal British Directory (York Section)
• Watson's York City Year Book
• Wells's York & District Directory
• White's Directory of York
• White's General Directory of Kingston-Upon-Hull & York (York Section)
• William’s City of York Directory

Note that there are multiple yearly volumes for some of these titles, notably the following:

• Cook's York & District Directory
• Johnson & Tesseyman's City Of York Directory
• Kelly's Directories
• Stevens's City of York Directory
• Watson's York City year book