Genealogy Chat

I seem to recall that before Companies House went online, they were microfiching records. I found my grandfather's company records from the 1970s at a local Companies House office, but some of these have been shut down and operations centralised at Cardiff. I think Paula is right, if you phone (or rather email, since you're in Australia!), they may well be able to print from microfiche for you.

Alastair - that is a long way back, I'm not sure when Companies House began registering companies.

[Ed: OK, 1844, but

"The number of companies that have been dissolved over the years has obliged The National Archives to be selective over what should be permanently preserved. It is impossible for The National Archives to preserve all the records of all dissolved companies."

- extract from National Archives site - a page about dissolved companies:

http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
index.php?title=Dissolved_
Companies:_selection_of_records

The page talks about how they decide what to keep (there is an element of pot luck) - if it is kept, then there will be no records of shareholders - I think - I've only read it briefly, but they do keep some of the annual returns, and these may give the name and address of the directors]

COMPANY DIRECTORS
The Companies House web-site essentially deals with current company records, the accounts that a company is required to register annually, and relevant current legislation.

What I (and perhaps many others) seek is access to historical records of Directors, shareholders, etc.

For example, my grandfather H. Otto Thomas was described on his son's 1899 birth certificate as 'Director'. From other evidence I guess that this was a small trading company with a brother doing most of the work, while grandfather was employed by Liptons in the City of London.

Can anyone tell us, please, if and how such historical Company archives can be accessed, either (ideally) on the internet, or as paper records?

A.H. Thomas

You can get info on current/ recently disolved companys directors etc online but with the company being struck off that long ago i don't know if they will still have the details. They have a call centre where the people are quite helpful or i suppose you could email them They charge for information but its not that expensive

Hi everyone...better introduce myself I am Hazel in Aussie left the UK many years ago. After one tip I searched the London Gazette for a specific name and came up with a company that was removed from the Companies register in April 1973 it has the exact same double barrelled name as myself so I am curious..........would anyone know how I can access the director details this far down the track............all help apprecieted.