GENEALOGY RESOURCES 
City Directories: Names, Addresses, and Much More

Genealogists use city and/or county directories to find out where their ancestors lived during a particular year; but, there’s much more information waiting to be discovered between the covers of these books. What else can a city directory tell us about a relative in addition to that first entry which gives us the residential address, the occupation, the wife’s name (sometimes!), and the business where he was employed? It may offer a picture of where he worked!

 image: Wikipedia

The illustration above comes from an advertisement in the 1908 Syracuse, New York, City Directory. If your ancestor happened to be employed by the Bartels Brewing Company in 1908, wouldn’t you like to have a drawing of the industrial plant where he worked? Engravings and pictures of company buildings can often be found in the business and/or advertiser’s index sections of old directories.

Here are three websites where you will find more information about using city directories in creative ways:

FamilySearch.org: https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Directories

AmericanAncestors.org: http://vita-brevis.org/2014/09/more-than-just-names-and-addresses/

New York Public Library: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/06/08/direct-me-1786-history-city-directories-US-NYC

RESEARCH NOTE: We will be exploring other kinds of information contained in city directories during the month of September; so, keep reading to discover more examples of surprising content in these resources. And, if you have found something really amazing in a city directory, please share your discovery by leaving a comment on the QHGS Blog for all to see.