STEVE INSKEEP, host: Okay, it's finally happening. We are about to pass time on this program by reading the phone book.</s>LYNN NEARY, host: In particular, it is the Greater London Phone Book, circa 1911.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: That 1911 book has a listing for Harry Houdini, the handcuff king. His home number was Gerard-1312.</s>LYNN NEARY, host: The 1926 London phone book has a listing for Alfred Hitchcock, and his number was Brixton-3807.</s>LYNN NEARY, host: BT, formerly British Telecom, posted more than a century of phone books along with the Web site Ancestry U.K. The Web site's Simon Harper says the book reflects a different time.</s>Mr. SIMON HAPRER (Ancestry U.K.): You could ring up Churchill himself in Paddington-1003. In the very early editions, numbers weren't published and the operator will be able to tell you, I'm sorry, Churchill's not in at the moment, and you'd call again.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: The hope is that people will now pay a few pounds out of curiosity while tracing their ancestors.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: You've got our number, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
BT, the former British Telecom, has put its archived telephone books dating back to 1880 online. BT partnered with the subscription-based website, Ancestry UK, to offer a searchable database that will eventually include 250 million names from throughout the United Kingdom.