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 the name of her 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
- Post Offices
- Courts
- Hospitals
- Firehouses
- Police locations
- Military installations
- Associations, clubs, lodges, and societies
- Newspapers
- and Much More…
Now with this abundance of information, why wouldn’t you use these gold mines in your research?
To access over 34,500 Free Online Directories in the U.S. and Canada, go to Directories on The Ancestor Hunt website.
