age of ppl listed in directories?

[skyblue_scarlet]

Just wondering what everyone thinks about this... 

i have a person in my tree who in an 1855 directory for boston spa is listed as a joiner, this fits perfectly, he lived there and was a joiner.. im not aware of another guy with the job.
 the entry is doubled as in theres 2 identical ones which says to me there was a son or at least another family member with the same name and job with him.

can i find the other guy?? errr nope. the census for the family looks as though there were no children but given the dates its possible that for whatever reason the kids were away for the earliest census and moved out for the second.. i cant even find one for somebody who might be the second guy.

so i was wondering how do you miss the census? at least the early one anyway how old or rather young could you be listed in a directory?

[Rena]

I've got a gt. grandfather who is listed twice in annual directories.  One is always his home address.  The other address was his workshop business address.  I puzzled over the first directory entry when he was about 25 years old because from old online photos it looked like it could belong to a high priced legal or accounting company.  A few decades later when he became bankrupt, I discovered that same address on the form together with the name of some sort of legal/accounting company.

[skyblue_scarlet]

my listing is identical under the first.. this is it

Chippendale David, Boston-Spa
Chippendale David, Boston-Spa

I do have others listed twice under different sections (two brothers in fact entered together)offering slightly different services but not an identical one like this and with me only able to find one of them so far..   obviously not brothers this time. driving me nuts these davids

[cati]

so i was wondering how do you miss the census? at least the early one anyway how old or rather young could you be listed in a directory?

There was no age restriction for people listed in a directory: the people whose names appear had to pay for the entry. In effect, in the 'Business/Trade' section, they are paying for advertising (and therefore will be those who had their own businesses, rather than working for someone else.)

The information was collected at least 12 months previously, to allow time for collation/printing/distribution, so it's quite possible that someone may have died before the date of the directory. 

It may be worth widening your search, as it's also not beyond the bounds of possibility that your 'second guy' may not have been living in Boston Spa in 1841 and 1851.  If you can access any Rates Assessments for this period, they may well indicate whether there are two joiners with the same name.

[cati]

Kelly's 1857 Post Office Directory for the West Riding of Yorkshire has an entry for David Chppendale, joiner, in Bracewell, which is some 40 miles due west of Boston Spa.  If this doesn't tie in with 'your' David, it may relate to the second one. (The entry immediately below is for a Mrs Mary Chippendale, baker - of course, this might be a co-incidence of names).

It may also be, of course, that the double entry in the 1855 Directory is a printer's error, and that the same information was printed twice.

[skyblue_scarlet]

i was literally just looking at that one when you posted this.. ive also just seen a david senior as a grazier which ive not noticed before, just gonna have a check through

[skyblue_scarlet]

well i like the possibility of that one but cant think of any way to tie him to anyone..  it seems any info on davids it quite scarce no matter how wide the search... as you say its always possible that there was a printing error (i hope not)