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City Directories Guide

Census Records-
City Directories
What's In Them Where to Find Them How to Use Them***

Almost always include:

  • Names of head of household
  • Addresses
  • Occupation


  • May also include:
  • Names of those over 18 in a household
  • Name and type of business
  • Widowed status
  • Maps and street directories
  • General compiled sources such as the FHL Catalog:
    http://www.familysearch.org/
     Search/searchcatalog.asp

    State or local libraries, archives or societies and/or compiled records for that locality as found in
    http://www.byub.org/
    ancestors/resourceguide/

    university & special libraries (e.g., DAR)

    Online & CD transcription projects

  • to track addresses and moves over time
  • to find clues to relationships, especially those living in the same house at the same time
  • to find clues to life events such as marital status and death dates (e.g., when a grown child moves out and appears at another address; when a woman first appears as a widow, narrowing the search for her husband's death, etc.)
  • to learn occupations and changes in
  • to make intelligent guesses about church the family attended or businesses they frequented
  • to learn about businesses run by ancestors
  • to learn about neighbors and other aspects of your ancestors' life
  • to close gaps in information between census years
  • to identify other potential branches of your family living nearby
  • *** Please share your suggestions for other uses of information found in census records here

    For more information on these important records, be sure to catch the Census Records episode of Ancestors on your local PBS station.