{"id":241,"date":"2015-06-18T20:25:20","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T20:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=241"},"modified":"2015-06-18T20:25:20","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T20:25:20","slug":"getting-at-offline-city-directories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=241","title":{"rendered":"Getting At Offline City Directories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most city directories that are easily available online are usually ones whose original copyright has expired.\u00a0Fold3<\/a>\"\"\u00a0<\/em>and Ancestry.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>do have digital images of city directories as a part of their services, but\u00a0Fold3<\/a><\/em>‘s collection tends to concentrate on urban areas before the early 1920s and Ancestry.com<\/a><\/em>‘s collection includes some post-1920 era directories, but the content is spotty and certain areas are more well-represented than others. Some specific city and regional directories have been put online by local genealogical societies, libraries, etc.<\/p>\n

Since I’ll be going to the Allen County Public Library in August<\/a> and will have a limited amount of time for my own research, I’ve decided to concentrate on city directories while I am there. The library has a significant collection of United States city directories, both in print and microfilm. Many of the microfilmed directories are available online on one or more websites.<\/p>\n

However, I need to plan before I go to the library as there’s no need to use there what I have access to online.<\/p>\n

Fold3<\/a><\/em>‘s collection concentrates on pre-1920 era urban United States cities. Personally the only large areas in which I have an interest are Chicago, St. Louis. Even if I don’t have time to search them completely before I go to the Library, I should at least determine what years are online so that I can check the Allen County Public Library card catalog and see if the library has directories that are not on\u00a0Fold3<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>or any other site.<\/p>\n

Ancestry.com<\/a><\/em>‘s collection is larger than that of Fold3<\/a><\/em>, but their site’s collection of directories after approximately 1920 is somewhat spotty. Tracking people effectively in city directories requires as many extant ones as possible.<\/p>\n

As I prepare for my trip, one approach might be to start with a list of towns and cities for which I want to access city directories. I should then establish a time frame in which I am interested for each location (including a list of names). Since I already have Ancestry.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and Fold3<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>memberships, I should determine first which directories these sites have. Then I should determine if there are free online directories for any dates neither Ancestry.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0<\/em>Fold3<\/a><\/em>\u00a0have.<\/p>\n

Then I’d have a list of directories that I can’t find online and which I’ll hope to find at the Allen County Public Library<\/a>. Their card catalog will tell me which ones they have for the missing periods in my list. Then those are books I can add to my search list.<\/p>\n

Before I get to the library, I’ll want to have a list of the towns whose directories I want to search and the names I want to search for in those directories. My list will be long, so organization is key. The collection of city directories at the Allen County Library is significant. A list sorted by location of the directories I want to search will help me make best use of my research time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most city directories that are easily available online are usually ones whose original copyright has expired.\u00a0Fold3\u00a0and Ancestry.com\u00a0do have digital images of city directories as a part of their services, but\u00a0Fold3‘s collection tends to concentrate on urban areas before the early 1920s and Ancestry.com‘s collection includes some post-1920 era directories, but the content is spotty and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}