City Directories

City directories are books published about localities and usually include the names, addresses, telephone numbers, occupations of the residents, and a directory of all the businesses in the area. Many people mistake them for telephone directories. In telephone directories, the only information you find is an alphabetical listing of residents, their address, and telephone number (the residential white pages). Businesses will be arranged first by subject, and within a subject business names are listed alphabetically by name (the yellow pages). City directories often contain a "reverse" street directory which lists streets alphabetically and then the names of people residing at each address. City directories often have a numerical section arranged by telephone prefix, under which us given the address and name of the resident for each telephone number assigned to that address.

As American cities have grown, city directories became more detailed. City directories often contain special sections pertaining to businesses, churches, and organizations. The actual content varies from locality to locality. Addresses of churches can be useful in narrowing the search to addresses located near to where your family resided. In large cities it can be a time-consuming task to figure out which churches were in existence at particular times. City directories can help you. If you learn the name of a minister, priest, or rabbi who performed the marriage of your ancestors, a city directory listing such individuals might provide you with the name of their church affiliation.

City directories can provide the researcher with a brief, but siginifcant, profile about an ancestor. The information provided in these directories can help you answer a variety of questions for a specific period of time. If you can identify the head of the household, you can usually determine or make an educated guess about the following types of information:

1. Who the head of the household was at a single period of time. Was it the father, mother, neighbor, relative, or perhaps the eldest teenage child?

2. Perhaps the husband died. A change in the head of the household having the same name at the same address indicates that someone moved, died, change in marital status, or that ownership of the property changed.

3. The address of the resident. This is helpful in determing enumeration districts in the U.S. Federal Census. It is also potentially helpful in locating property and tax records in the event that individual owned the property.

4. The occupation of an individual. This can help you understand the socio-economic status of the individual and family. The directory may also list the name of the company that employed your ancestor. You can also look in the business section for details about the employer. In some directories, it was common practice for companies involved in public trade to place advertisements in the directories. These were similar to advertisements found in modern telephone books. These directories were compiled as a result of people going to residences. Some individuals were more forthcoming with information than others. Unfortunately, not everyone was included in these old city directories. Ancestors might not have been home when the data was compiled or refused to answer the canvasser's questions. This might also account for why some people have no occupation listed by their name.

5. Was the resident an owner, renter, or boarder. If a person was listed as an owner, then there should be a record of when the property was purchased and/or sold.

6. You can also use the city directory to find when an immigrant ancestor first appeared. Once you have determined when your ancestors were first listed, you have an idea when to begin your search of naturalization records.

Information contained in city directories usually provides clues for additional research. The main benefit of city directories provide researchers is placing an ancestor in a city, town, township, or village at a single point in time. Census records can help you every ten years, and some state censuses can help for the period between. City directories can also help fill in gaps. This is especially true in the period between 1880 and 1900. Since the 1890 U.S. Census was almost completely destroyed by fire, city directories are considered one of the best tools available to fill in the gap from this era.

During this period, city directories were usually published every year. Since they were intended for use during such a short period, the publishers used the cheapest quality of paper stock available. Unfortunately, many directories have been lost due to the cheap publishing methods. A city or town's collection may be incomplete because no one felt the need would eventually arise for preserving these directories as a resource for research.

Early city directories listed only the heads of households. The normal content of a city directory entry for an individual consisted of the full name, residence, and occupation of the individual. Depending on the locality, later editions contained expanded entries which listed the names and occupations of other household inhabitants. Since households were larger, you might have several generations living under the same roof. Eventually, telephone numbers were also included in the listings.

In most localities, the city directories were divided into three parts:

1.Businesses

2. Residents

3. Negroes or Colored

One must realize that until recent times, segregation was as much a part of life in the north as well as the south. This segregated breakdown can help genealogists eliminate some names on their list, especially when a common surname such as SMITH or JONES is involved.

In modern times, city directories are no longer published for all areas. Even where they are published, they are seldom printed every calendar year. The costs are so high it is prohibitive for many small businesses to purchase them. Furthermore, their advertising dollars are spent much more efficiently in the regular telephone book, which has a much higher circulation.

Nevertheless, from a historical perspective, many of the larger public or genealogical society libraries usually have a collection of city directories for their city or region. The Library of Congress has a sizable collection. Most of the city directories that still exist have been transferred to either microfilm or microfiche.

If you cannot visit a library in the locality or region of your search, many libraries will accept genealogical correspondence if you have a complete name, and some knowledge of when the ancestor lived in the community.

City directories are available in many libraries. However, many libraries will only have city directories only for their specific locality. A word of caution, however; not all areas had city directories published for their locality. While most public libraries, historical societies and state archives have collections of these directories varying in size from local, regional, or state-wide in scope, the largest collections reside in the following libraries:

1. Library of Congress, Washington, DC

2. American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts

3. DAR Library, Washington, DC

4. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah

5. New England Historical Genealogical Society Library, Boston, Massachusetts

6. Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana

7. Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois

8. New York Public Library, New York City

9. Chicago-Cook County Library, Chicago, Illinois

10. Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles, California.

Bibliography

Croom, Emily Anne. Unpuzzling Your Past: A Basic Guide To Genealogy. 3rd Edition. Cincinnati, OH: Betterway Books, c1995.

Filby, P. William. American & British Genealogy & Heraldry. 3rd Edition. Boston, MA: New England Historical & Genealogical Society, c1983.

---------------------- American & British Genealogy & Heraldry. 1982-1985 Supplement. Boston, MA: New England Historical & Genealogical Society, c1987.

Greenwood, Val D. Researchers Guide To American Genealogy. 2nd Edition. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1990.

Szucs, Loretto Dennis & Sandra Hargreaves Luebking. The Source: A Guidebook Of American Genealogy. Revised Edition. Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Publishing Company, c1997.

Wright, Raymond S. Genealogist's Handbook: Modern Methods For Researching History. Chicago, IL & London, England: American Library Association, c1995.

Compiled by Bryan L. Mulcahy, Reference Librarian, Fort Myers-Lee County Library, 2/27/99.