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.
Where can you find online city directories?
Download the Quicksheet PDF
I have put together a Quick Reference Guide that has websites where you can find online city directories. Some are free (such as The Ancestor Hunt) and some are only available via a subscription
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
Quicksheets are also known as Quick Reference Guides. They are generally a one or two page PDF that is downloadable. A few QuickSheets are as large as a five page PDF.
Every QuickSheet is in a specific post on The Ancestor Hunt website. Just bring up the post, and at the bottom of the page is a big brown Download button that allows you to view and/or download the PDF when clicked.
There are over 80 QuickSheets.
Here are links to the 10 Most Popular:
- 100 Best Free Online Genealogy Websites
- Beyond the Search Engine: Using Google Databases for Genealogy Research
- 64 Genealogy Items to Collect from Your Home
- United States Genealogical and Historical Societies
- 24 Places Where You Can Find Your Ancestors Occupation
- 13 Types of Genealogical Information You Can Find in Old Yearbooks
- 16 Places Where You Can Find Genealogy and Family History Books
- Easy Cousin Relationship Chart
- The Easiest Way to Find Every Historical Newspaper in America
- The Best Way to Find 20% More Pertinent Newspaper Articles Online
Yes! You can view or download as many as you wish.
One reply on “Where to Find Online City Directories”
I’ve been very fortunate to have access to the City Directories at HeritageQuest Online as a benefit of my local public library, which allows card-holders remote access from home. They provide remote access to:
Fold3,
HeritageQuest Online
Historic Map Works,
New England Historic & Genealogical Society Free Databases,
Newspapers.com,
NewsBank,
Sanborn Maps Texas.
For the first year of COVID, they also allowed remote access to Ancestry.com Library Edition.