30 November 2007
BT will be putting old phone books online for the first time, it has announced.
However, those hoping to use it as a current resource are in for a surprise - the new project is a collaboration with family tree site, Ancestry.co.uk and is of historical interest only.
Phone numbers dating back almost to the phone's invention, including those of composer Edward Elgar and writer Evelyn Waugh, have been unearthed and uploaded - contributing towards the total of 280 million numbers from 1,780 books that have been put on the new website.
Ancestry.co.uk's phone number project took over two years to complete, coming about through the fact that all phone numbers printed before BT's privatisation in 1984 are a matter of public record.
For a monthly fee, all users can search the entire database.
Simon Harper, Managing Director of Ancestry.co.uk, said: "The British phone books, 1880-1984, are an exciting resource for anyone wishing to explore either late Victorian, 20th Century family or social history as they provide solid evidence of where people lived during any given time in this period."
Sian Wynn-Jones, BT Collections Heritage Manager, added: "Digitising the phone book collection supports BT's commitment to preserving and providing public access to these important historical sources."
The first phone book dates back to 1880 - according to the BBC: its very first entry is for a Mr JW Alt, who lived at 14, Queen Victoria Street, EC1.
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