Postal Directories
Postal directories are printed primary sources and not archival records in the true sense, since they are commercial publications rather than records produced by a bureaucracy. Nevertheless, postal directories are among the most frequently consulted items in archive search rooms in Scotland, both by archivists and researchers, and they make a very useful back-up to original records, such as valuation rolls, maps and census returns.
Advantages
Compared to valuation rolls, postal directories have certain advantages to the researcher. Firstly, they are compact: one volume covers a city or county, while the equivalent valuation roll might run to over a dozen volumes. They are arranged alphabetically, principally by personal name, but also, in the case of cities and large towns, by address. If there is a section in a postal directory arranged by street name, all of one street appears in same place, unlike in many valuation rolls, where a street may be divided between wards. Directories for towns and cities can give the researcher a good grasp of street intersections at a glance (i.e. at which point a street was intersected by another). Some directories have a section classified by trade, so that someone looking for the names of medical practitioners or blacksmiths or some other profession or type of business in a place, can find a list of these. Some have useful appendices, such as lists of schools and other educational establishments, charitable institutions, and other organizations. For business historians and genealogists many directories are useful because they often provide both a business and home address for businessmen and industrialists
Disadvantages
There are disadvantages to directories, or, rather, things to bear in mind when using them. Firstly, they are principally a form of commercial advertising. Not every household or building is listed in a directory, and certainly much fewer than in valuation rolls. Directories do not provide information as to who owns the building. They are not as reliably updated as valuation rolls each year. In general, directories should be used with caution, and bear in mind that any directory was a commercially produced form of advertising, and the names and addresses within it are principally those of individuals or businesses who have paid for an entry.
Contributors: Robin Urquhart (SCAN, 2002)
Why might someone go on appearing in a Postal Directory after they have moved from a property, or even after they have died?
Information within postal directories was either paid for by subscribers or collected by employees of the publisher who produced the directory. It is possible that someone may have paid for several years’ entries in a directory and died before the publication date. Alternatively, information about the inhabitants of a building may not have been updated promptly by the publisher.
Why might a property not be listed in a Post Office Directory?
In many cases because the owner or resident of the property did not subscribe to the directory. Another possibility is that the property is known by two addresses (e.g. occupies a corner site with an entrance at each street, and the directory only includes one of the addresses).
Why might there be only one or two persons listed at a tenement property (which should have had 6 or more households)?
Usually because the tenement had commercial properties (e.g. shops, store-rooms or workshops) on the ground floor, and it is the proprietors of these businesses who paid to be included in the directory.