Names that get spelled numerous ways create research challenges. Desmarais is one of those names. There are times where it is simply easier to manually search a record instead of performing a seemingly infinite variety of wildcard searches. Manual searches of a long list of variants are somewhat easier when the item being searched is already alphabetical in nature.

1908 Chicago, Illinois, City Directory, page 653–Louis DeMar; digital image, Fold3.com

That’s how I located Louis DeMar in the 1908 directory for the City of Chicago living at 11942 State Street using online copies of the directories for Chicago at Fold3.com.

Desmarais has a long list of spelling variants, including:

• Demarais
• DeMar
• DeMare
• Demarrah
• Demaray
• etc.

To locate Louis in this directory given its alphabetical nature, it was simply easier to view the pages of the directory that started with “Dem” and “Des” and view the entries manually. This relieved me of relying on a variety of wildcard searches and increased the chance I found the entry of interest it if was rendered in some way that was not on my variant list.

Now that I’ve found him one way in a directory for the City of Chicago, I’ll start every search for him in a directory with that name. Hopefully that is the way he is listed in the majority of directory entries while he lived in Chicago.

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Note: Fold3.com has digital copies of city directories for a variety of larger United States cities. The cities and coverage can be viewed on the Fold3.com site. If online images for a specific city of interest are not available elsewhere, it may be worth considering a temporary subscription and downloading all the relevant pages of interest.