Free Online Delaware City Directories

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

This activity of presenting links is a collaborative effort between The Ancestor Hunt and Miriam Robbins, who for years has made available the Online Historical Directories website, which presents links to directories of all types that are available online, including free collections as well as those available only via subscription. I wish to thank Miriam for her help in launching this category of records at The Ancestor Hunt.

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 can you find in these records? How about:

• Full names, including middle names
• Spouse name
• Occupation
• Widows, working women, and adult children at home.
• Maps
• Businesses (and index to advertisers).
• Addresses and maps of churches, schools, funeral homes, cemeteries, post offices, courts, hospitals, benevolent associations, and newspapers.
• Whether a woman is a widow (including the name of her husband).
• List of marriages and deaths of the previous year.
• Death date.
• etc.

Here are a few good primers on the benefits of searching historical city and other directories:​

• FamilySearch – United States Directories
• How to Use City Directories In Your Genealogy Research 
• What’s In A City Directory? (a 10-article series about City Directories)

And here are various places where you can find other city directories online: 

• Where to Find City Directories Online

Note: Some of the links listed take you to a FamilySearch Collection of digital images. Near the bottom of the page under Film/Digital Notes is the name of each sub-collection. If there is a camera icon at the right of the name (in the Format column) then the collections’ images are browsable. If there is a camera with a key icon, it is only available at a Family History Center or affiliated library. If there is a film reel icon, then it is only available in microfilm format, not digital. To take full advantage, please make sure that you are logged in to FamilySearch. The results may be different if you are signed in, rather than not.

(Updated October 2022)

Links to these free collections are presented initially with statewide collections, followed in alphabetical order by city or county. Generally, the publishing company is included in the reference to the collection, along with the collection title, and the date(s) of the directory:

Statewide

• Physicians’ and dentists’ Directory of the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, 1897-08
• State of Delaware thru Wilmington – July 1937 thru October 1913, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• The Delaware state Directory and Gazetteer, 1874-75
• The Delaware state Directory and Gazetteer, 1874-75
• Thomson’s mercantile and professional Directory, for the states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia, 1851

DelMarVa

• Delmarva Business Directory, 1931

Dover

• Dover – October 1952 thru October 1954, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Dover – October 1955 thru October 1960, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Dover – September 1948 thru September 1951, White Pages and Yellow Pages

Georgetown

• Georgetown – December 1956 thru April 1963, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Georgetown – September 1947 thru September 1950, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Georgetown – September 1951 thru October 1955, White Pages and Yellow Pages

Lower Delaware

• Lower Delaware – August 1945 thru September 1949, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Lower Delaware – October 1954 thru February 1960, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Lower Delaware – September 1950 thru October 1953, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Lower Delaware – Summer 1933 thru July 1944, White Pages and Yellow Pages

New Castle County

• The Farm journal Farm and Business Directory of New Castle County, Delaware – 1914

Newark

• Directory, alumni and alumnae of the University of Delaware, 1873-1930

​Wilmington

• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1923
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1902
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1903
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1904
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1905
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1906
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1907
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1908
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1909
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1910
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1911
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1912
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1913
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1914
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1915
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1916
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1917
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1919
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1919
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1920
• Philadelphia and Wilmington Social Directory, 1922
• The Wilmington City Directory for 1890
• The Wilmington Directory for the year 1853 
• Wilmington, A Directory, and register for the year 1814
• Wilmington – December 1949, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – December 1950, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – December 1951, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – December 1952 thru December 1953, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – February 1954, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – February 1955, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – February 1956, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – January 1944 thru January 1946, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – November 1936 thru January 1940, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – November 1946 thru November 1947, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – November 1948, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – November 1956, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – October 1940 thru January 1943, White Pages and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – October 1957, White and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – October 1958, White and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – October 1959, White and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – October 1960, White and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – October 1961, White and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – October 1962, White and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington – October 1963, White and Yellow Pages
• Wilmington City Directory, Boyd, 1859-60
• Wilmington Directory, 1857 
• Wilmington Directory. [1845] 
• Wilmington thru Dover – May 1914 thru September 1947, White Pages and Yellow Pages