Family history can be found just about everywhere - even in the phone book. Sean Coughlan in BBC News Magazine reports on historic phone directories being put online.

"The humble phone book, dating back to the Victorians, is providing a rich seam of social history. And as part of the boom in genealogy, back issues of phone directories have been scanned and published online in a venture between BT and a family history website.

The article does an excellent job of making the lowly phone book a fascinating read. The first phone book published in 1880, for example, didn't include any phone numbers - only addresses. If you wanted to call someone, you rang the operator and asked to be connected by name.

The first release of scanned British Phone Books 1880-1984 are available online through the subscription site, Ancestry.co.uk. The initial release of 430 London books (which include the counties of Surrey, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent and Middlesex), contain over 72 million names.