City Directories

City directories are a fantastic source for researching urban ancestors. Some locales publish rural or suburban directories as well. I have utilized directories for cities of various sizes: Chicago, Muncie,  Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Covington, Newport, Marion, Peru, Shelbyville and others - mostly in Indiana and the Cincinnati area.

The format is fairly routine: names are, of course, alphabetized. With each entry you will find the given name, occupation, residence (whether the person is the householder [h] or boarder [b]), and in some cases the place of employment. If a woman is widowed, then (widow of _____) will be entered.

You may also find advertisements for a relative's business. Streets are listed in the back of the directories with house/business numbers and residents/owners. [You can find out which relatives lived nearby!] There is a list of abbreviations near the front of each directory.

Check the town or city of interest to see when the directories were published. Directories may be missing for some years. Ancestry.com, World Vital Records and some other sites offer a limited number of directories. Most libraries will have copies on microform or the actual directories.

If you are researching Indianapolis-based ancestors, Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis [IUPUI] has a superb digital collection of city and suburban directories beginning with 1855 and running to 2001. https://ulib.iupui.edu/collections/icd You can do a keyword/surname search or simply flip through the pages.

If your ancestor is not in the directory, check the next few years earlier and later. He/she may have been missed.

Once the ancestor stops showing, you can assume that they moved, died, or in the case of females - remarried. I have seen one entry that stated that the person returned to Ireland!

Entries had probably reached the age of majority at his/her first listing.

Don't let the occupation mislead you. A person may be listed as a laborer one year, a carpenter the next and then as a mechanic. Focus on the specific - he was probably a carpenter. [Early on, a mechanic was someone who worked with his hands.] Mechanic, as in auto mechanic, wouldn't be common until cars became commonplace.

Location can help you with relationships. Same address? Probably family. Folks with a common surname [rare, unusual or limited number] are probably related. [This does not apply with Smith, Jones, Lee or entries with 25 or more of that surname.] Surnames that frequent a given neighborhood are likely family.

City directories are a valuable resource, fun and interesting to examine.