Kelly's Directory Of Hampshire & The Isle Of Wight 1920

Kelly's Directory of Hampshire & The Isle of Wight 1920 (Digital Download or CD)

Product Description

Step back into the post-World War I era with this complete republishing of Kelly's Directory of Hampshire & The Isle of Wight 1920. An essential resource for genealogists and local historians, this directory offers a fascinating snapshot of life in the county exactly a century ago.

About This Format This high-quality reproduction is available as a convenient digital download or on a physical CD-ROM. Please note that this directory consists of scanned images of the original book pages. While the text is not embedded (meaning it is not instantly searchable like a modern eBook), the alphabetical arrangement of names and trades makes navigation remarkably straightforward.

Furthermore, most modern PDF readers (such as Adobe Acrobat) now feature OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on the fly. This means you can often use the "Find" function within your reader software to search for surnames or street names, making research much faster than with the original hardcopy.

Bridging the Census Gap

The 1921 Census is the next major census after 1911, but access can sometimes be restrictive or expensive. This directory serves as a vital bridge for the 1920 gap, allowing you to pinpoint where your ancestors lived and worked between the 1911 Census and the 1939 Register.

What's Inside?

This comprehensive volume is divided into several key sections to aid your research:

1. County Information: A detailed history and topography of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, including administrative details, geology, and agriculture.
2. Court Directory (Private Residents): An alphabetical list of private residents, featuring the heads of households, gentry, and professionals.
3. Commercial & Trades Directory: A classified list of businesses and tradesmen. This is incredibly useful for finding ancestors who did not own land but were shopkeepers, blacksmiths, innkeepers, or craftsmen.
4. Town & Village Directories: Street-by-street listings for major towns like Southampton, Portsmouth, Winchester, Bournemouth, and Newport, as well as smaller hamlets.
5. Official Information: Details on local council officials, magistrates, clergy, and public institutions.

Local History, Famous People & Facts

This directory covers a region rich in history and industry. While tracing your family, you will discover the context of their daily lives:

• Maritime & Military Heritage: In 1920, Portsmouth was still one of the world’s great naval dockyards. You may find ancestors working as shipwrights or serving in the Royal Navy. Southampton, having been the departure point for the Titanic just eight years prior, remained a bustling hub of transatlantic travel and trade.
• Literary Connections: The area is forever linked to Jane Austen, who lived in Chawton and died in Winchester. While she passed away much earlier, in 1920 her legacy was being preserved by the growing tourist trade and local societies mentioned in local notes.
• The Isle of Wight: Known as the "Garden Isle," the directory details the hospitality industry catering to the Victorian and Edwardian elite who still flocked here. Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s beloved home, was a major point of interest.
• Sport: The rivalry between Southampton F.C. (The Saints) and Portsmouth F.C. (Pompey) was already fierce. By 1920, football was a central part of working-class life in the region.
• Industry: Beyond the docks, Hampshire was known for its agriculture (particularly watercress and strawberries in the Test Valley) and the early days of the aviation industry in Southampton, which would later lead to the Spitfire.

Important Disclaimer Regarding Maps

Original directory maps were often printed on separate paper and folded into the binding. Because of this, they were frequently removed, lost, or damaged over the last 100 years. We have included every page available from the original source we scanned. If a map is present in your copy, please consider it a bonus inclusion, but please be aware that it may be missing.

System Requirements: To view this PDF, you will need a PDF reader installed on your computer (such as Adobe Reader or similar).

Unlock the secrets of your Hampshire and Isle of Wight ancestors today!