Burnley and Vicinity, England Directory, 1896

This database contains a directory, completed and published in 1896, of the Burnely area in Lancashire. This area includes the cities and towns of Nelson, Colne, Padiahm, Barrowford, Brierfield, Cliviger, Trawden, and Barnoldswick. Aside from these specific localities, the directory also includes all other adjacent villages and townships. This database includes classified and street directories of these areas, as well as the usual alphabetical directories. The alphabetical portion lists the names of the heads of households, along with their addresses and occupational information. The database also includes historical sketches of the larger towns and cities.

City directories are primarily useful for locating people in a particular place and time. They can tell you generally where an ancestor lived and give an exact location for census years. They are also useful for linkage with sources other than censuses.

Some city directories list adult children who lived with their parents but were working or going to school. Look for persons of the same surname residing at the same address. If analyzed and interpreted properly, these annual directories can tell you (by implication) which children belong to which household, when they married and started families of their own, and when they established themselves in business. In cases where specific occupation is given, you can search records pertinent to that occupation.

Taken from Chapter 11: Research in Directories, The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy by Gordon Lewis Remington; edited by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1997).