Kelly's Directory Of Gloucestershire 1906

Kelly's Directory of Gloucestershire 1906 (Digital Download or CD)

Product Description

Step back into the Edwardian era and uncover the history of your ancestors with this complete republishing of Kelly's Directory of Gloucestershire 1906. An essential resource for genealogists and local historians, this directory offers a fascinating snapshot of life in the county over a century ago.

Bridging the Census Gap The 1901 and 1911 censuses are often the primary go-to records for family historians. However, a decade is a long time in a person’s life. This directory acts as a perfect "census substitute," filling that ten-year gap. It allows you to track where your ancestors lived, their occupations, and their social standing between the national counts, helping to confirm if they moved towns, changed trades, or disappeared from the records entirely.

Contents of the Directory This comprehensive volume is divided into several useful sections to aid your research:

• County Information: A detailed history of Gloucestershire, including its topography, ancient landmarks, magistrates, and geology.
• Court Directory (Private Residents): An alphabetical list of private residents, primarily the gentry, clergy, and wealthier tradespeople. This is excellent for tracing family lines that held social status.
• Commercial & Trades Directory: A classified list of professions and businesses. From Blacksmiths in the Forest of Dean to Grocers in Cheltenham, this section helps you understand the local economy and find working-class ancestors who may not appear in the census or residential lists.
• Town & Village Histories: Street-by-street and village-by-village breakdowns for major hubs like Gloucester, Bristol (suburbs), Cheltenham, Stroud, Cirencester, and Tewkesbury, as well as smaller hamlets.

Famous Residents and Local Figures Gloucestershire in 1906 was home to a vibrant mix of influential figures. While browsing the pages, you may encounter the residences of notable local personalities or the families of famous sons and daughters born in the area.

• W.G. Grace: The legendary cricketer, often called the "Father of Cricket," lived in the county. While his main residence was in London, his connections to Gloucestershire cricket were immense, and family members or local associates may appear.
• Gustav Holst: Born in Cheltenham in 1874, the famous composer (most known for The Planets) had strong roots here. By 1906, he was working in London, but his musical family connections in Cheltenham may still be listed in the resident sections.
• Johannes Rietschel: The German-born sculptor who settled in the Stroud valley, known for his intricate works, was active in the county during this period.

A Glimpse into Gloucestershire Life (1906) This directory captures a county on the cusp of the modern age.

• Industry: The pages hum with the output of the Stroud Valleys, famous for its woollen mills producing the high-quality "Stroudwater Scarlet" cloth used in military uniforms. Meanwhile, Gloucester was a bustling railway hub, home to the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, employing hundreds of men whose names you can find in the trades section.
• Sport: The county was, and remains, a stronghold for rugby. Gloucester Rugby Club (founded 1873) was in its prime, and Cheltenham Racecourse was already establishing itself as the home of National Hunt racing.
• Music & Culture: Beyond the industrial mills, the spa town of Cheltenham is listed in its full elegance, showcasing the architecture and cultural life that attracted the wealthy elite to take the waters.

About the Format & Navigation Please note that this product is a high-quality scan of the original book, comprising digitized images (PDF format). It is not a text-searchable database in the traditional sense. However, navigation is surprisingly easy:

1. Alphabetical Order: The directory is strictly alphabetized by surname (residents) and trade (commercial), allowing for quick manual browsing just like the original book.
2. Modern OCR Technology: Most modern PDF readers (such as Adobe Acrobat, Edge, or Preview) now perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR) "on the fly." This means you can often use the Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F) search function in your reader to highlight names and places within the images.

Map Disclaimer & Bonus Original directories often contained pull-out maps that were easily torn out or lost over the last 118 years.

• Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee the presence of the original map in every scan, as they were frequently removed from the source books before they were digitized.
• The Bonus: If the map is present in the original scanned source, it will be included in your download/CD—a fantastic bonus piece of cartographic history showing the county boundaries and railway lines as they stood in 1906!

Available as a Digital Download (PDF) or a Physical CD-ROM. Choose your preferred format and start exploring your Gloucestersheritage today.