Telephone directories

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• Note that many names are listed in the telephone directories (printed and online) showing just their initials and surnames, without the full first names
• You can search the British Telecom Phonebook database by entering a name and a county, town or village. The web site gives the search option as 'Town', but entering a county also works unless that gives too many results
• Bedford Central, Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard libraries hold a full set of the printed telephone directories for the UK. Other Bedfordshire libraries hold the local phone directories for their area
• The printed directories are updated roughly every eighteen months
• If it would help you to view historical telephone directories up to 1984, you can search them on the Ancestry web site. You can search Ancestry Library Edition free in all Bedfordshire libraries or at a charge at Ancestry.com. For more details see the Telephone directories page in the Local and Family History section.
• Return to Finding people for more topics

Page last updated: 25th November 2013