33 Things You Can Find in City Directories

City and business directories are available online from all over the U.S. and Canada and are what I consider another important (and underutilized) set of information that can assist you in advancing your family history and genealogy research.

So, what kinds of directories are available to the researcher? Naturally city and business directories, but also telephone directories, and alumni, farm, lodge, rural, and social directories.

What kind of information do they include?

• Full names, including middle names
• Spouse name
• Occupation
• Employer
• Widows and adult children at home
• Phone numbers
• Whether a woman is a widow (including name of husband)
• List of marriages and deaths from the previous year
• Abbreviations used in the directory
• Maps
• Street Locators and street name changes
• City history
• Bus routes
• Statistics
• Advertisements
• Businesses
• Index to advertisers
• Government Offices
• Government Officials
• Churches
• Cemeteries
• Schools
• Colleges and Universities
• Funeral homes
• Cemeteries
• Post Offices
• Courts
• Hospitals
• Firehouses
• Police locations
• Military installations
• Associations, clubs, lodges, and societies
• Newspapers

Download the Quicksheet PDF

I have put together a Quick Reference Guide that has 33 pieces of information that you can find in city directories.

To obtain the one-page Quicksheet pdf for easy reference, you can download it by clicking on the Download button:

For all the previously published Quick Reference Guides, click on QuickSheets

Genealogy QuickSheets – Frequently Asked Questions