Before online databases took over, the Genealogical Research Directory was essential for connecting family historians. If you’ve got old volumes gathering dust, they may still be valuable research tools. Now, Ancestry has some of them online.
Published in Australia, Ancestry calls the database Australia Genealogical Research Directory, 1981-1993. They compiled submissions from researchers in 30 countries, containing over 100,000 surname entries. Contributors listed the families they were researching, along with locations and time periods, making it easier to find others working on the same lines.
British and Commonwealth entries heavily dominated the directories: England had 408,110, Australia 177,481, Ireland 81,313, Scotland 79,058, Canada 38,500, New Zealand 19,126, and Wales 11,052.
Ancestry’s digitized volumes are searchable through their standard search interface. Since surnames are arranged alphabetically in each issue, you can browse to spot variant spellings and alternative forms of names you’re researching.
A surname search gives a date range, year of publication and reference number. Then go to the browse volume for that year and find the start page for the contributors’ addresses. Move forward from that page to find the reference number. It yields the enquirer’s name and postal address, as of at least 30 years ago!