How has the Historical Directories site helped you? Below is the web editor's selection of case studies based upon user feedback. We do not publish e-mail addresses or full names of users for Data Protection purposes.
You can find out so much more from directories as they are published annually rather than every ten years, as in the census. It allows you to put more meat on the bones.
For instance, in one directory I discovered my great-great grandfather was a registrar for births deaths and marriages as well as an immunisation officer and dairy farmer. And we say we are overworked! At the front of the directory it even explained when and where he operated as a registrar. On Thursdays, for example, people would go to his place of residence if they had anything to register.
To give another example, there was a rumour in my family that my great-great-great grandfather had lost a lot of farmland in a poker game. I heard this from several sources but could find no gap in the census. A lot can happen in 10 years! Through your directories I discovered that he did indeed appear to have lost land in the mid 1870s.
I also found other information in the directories very useful for putting my ancestors into context. For example, at the time the motorcar was introduced you see reports of children being knocked down. There didn't seem to be much in the way of Health and Safety!
The fact that you are making these directories available online and, best of all, free is a marvellous help for us surfing researchers.
Centre for Urban History, University of Leicester
http://www.le.ac.uk/ur/index.html
Centre for English Local History, University of Leicester
http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/
History of census returns in England and Wales, GENUKI project
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/Census.html