Where do I start? Most of the historical directories atart in 1839, and the census in 1841. There are other records before this time, but they are difficult to find.
I have been building an Pub History site for the past twenty years, and more. Once upon a time it was the site built by Ian Hunter before his demise. I took this site on, with friends, and built it into what it is today, many thousands of random pages of useful data.
In 2016, AI took a snapshot of web sites, and stole their data. Sadly, AI is only as good as its owners. Google have an AI model which is absolutely rubbish, and rarely accurate. The Google search engine only gives up paid searches, and is generally not good.
If Google wants a paid assistant who can tell them about their awful search engine, then I would be glad to help. It really is a load of crap. AI should be meaningfull, but Google seems to think a guess at the right answer is good enough.
Chatpgt is brilliant, but only allows a number of free shots at their data.I have lots of chats with the chatgpt, which are always truthful.
More to the point, I now visit the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford about once a week. The site is amazing. It also has the blue badge parking I need.
I have been working through the years of 1769 to 1828 Alehouse Recognizances, and they are building, and I keep purchasing new pencils and pads of paper. Many of the records are now on my pubwiki site in Essex Pubs.