Genealogists will be very familiar with the value of historic trade directories for finding the names and locations of the most influential people in communities, particularly those engaged in farming or any other form of commerce.
Among the most useful and most comprehensive of the Yorkshire directories are those produced by the Sheffield publisher William White. His History, Gazetteer and Directory of the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire, published in 1840, is especially useful for genealogists studying family members of the period in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale. It can be consulted online here: History, gazetteer, and directory, of the east and north ridings of Yorkshi… – Google Books, scroll to pages 639-640 and 646-651.
However, it will be noticed that the locations of the people listed are identified by number codes (see image above), which can be awkward to follow and don’t present an easy guide to how many farmers and trades people there were in each locality.
To overcome this problem, SWAAG member Will Swales has transcribed the pages for upper Swaledale and Arkengarthdale and presented the entries grouped by each local area, without the need for number codes. That version of the entries, together with an introduction to the directory and its value to genealogists, can be seen here: Upper Swaledale and Arkengarthdale in the 1840s.
