Tracking the Past with City Directories

John Erickson and Some Relatives in 1934 Bemidji, Minnesota Page 68

For many people, research begins and ends with census data, birth, death and marriage registers, and maybe a few goodies such as border crossings and draft records. However, at best, such information provides only a fragmentary snapshot of what was going on with ancestors. This need not be the case. One way to fill out what an ancestor was up to is through city directories, and to supplement them with other sources such as church records and newspaper clippings.

Isn't a City Directory Just a Phonebook?
At their best, city directories had much more information in them than a modern phonebook. Published at regular intervals, many of them include information such as profession, family members, death information, and neighbors. Later ones added phone numbers . Back in the day, there were many directory companies, just as there are now many hotel booking companies. In a few cases, old-line directory companies are still around. One of the biggest, RL Polk is now known as Carfax.

Where are Directories Located?
In most cases, original paper city directories reside at a main library branch. Seattle Public Library, for example, has directories going back to 1867 and has almost all the residential directories published after 1890 (remember, Washington didn't become a State until 1889). Lots of these directories can be pinned down by using Worldcat. The Family History Library in Utah has an extensive microfilm collection that can be identified on their pages on the FamilySearch site. In that regard, it is somewhat of a "one stop shop." What's more, many directories have been digitized and there's a good index to them at the United States Online Historical Directories. Sadly, this site is not as good as it could be due to directories moving around, but it's still a good place to start. Cyndi's List also has a good list of directories here. There are many ways to access these directories. For example, HeritageQuest and Ancestry both provide the same extensive set of directories from many places for many years. HeritageQuest can be accessed from home with the card credentials from a library carrying it. MyHeritage also has a lot of directories. They claim to have 25000 US directories. Similarly, the Library of Congress has an extensive list of directories, though most of those have been digitized by "pay" genealogy sites. Much as this is, it is only the tip of the iceberg since most of these sites ALSO have extensive collections of foreign directories. Truthfully, directories are almost anyplace one cares to look, clicking here takes you to nearly 8000 city directories from various places. Clicking here takes you to over a half million more directories. I could go on for paragraphs more, but simply search for "city directory" or "city directories" on the genealogy site of your choice and you'll find that the biggest problem is finding the specific information you want, not finding enough quantity.

Supplements to City Directories
One excellent supplement to a city directory is the collection of Sanborn Fire Maps. Published by the Sanborn Map Company, these maps show the size, shape, and construction of every building in its coverage area. Combined with a city directory, the researcher can determine which houses were built where and when, and also buildings that may no longer exist. Up until around 1920, the Library of Congress has an extensive collection of Sanborn Maps. Unfortunately, the Seattle Public Library is the only place that seems to have newer Sanborn Maps across the US, though many libraries have newer Sanborn Maps for the State in which they are located.

City Directory Example
As an example, I'll use family information from Bemidji, Minnesota and Everett, Washington. Both of these locations have many years cataloged in AncestryLibrary as well as HeritageQuest. An example, taken from the 1934 Bemidji City Directory, may be seen at the top of this post and immediately below. From other research, I had learned that John Erickson (my wife's great grandfather) lived at the same residence in the 1940 US Census as his sister, Caroline Walstedt in 1935 and 1940. I also learned that his brother-in-law, Jonas Erickson and his niece, Eleanor also lived in Bemidji. All of these show up in the top image. However, the census does not tell us that John and his sister lived less than a block away from a Norwegian Lutheran Church, though they went halfway across town to attend the Swedish Lutheran Church. Adding information from a Sanborn Map, I discovered that John's Grocery Store was only a short walk from his residence and was next door to a service station.

Street Directory Shows John Erickson's 1934 Business and Home Neighbors on Page 192

Looking at a series of the directories, and adding the Everett Directory where John's former wife was living, I was able to confirm that Caroline Walstedt changed her first name periodically to fit the times (her Swedish name had been Karolina Olsdotter), that John eventually acquired the service station and, in his last years, simply ran one of the buildings as "John's Coffee Shop." What's more, his other niece, Anna Pearson (Caroline's daughter) was a nurse and lived at the same house even after John and her mother passed away. John's brother-in-law, Jonas separated from his wife and they afterwards lived in different locations. Jonas lived in the boarding house run by his niece, Eleanor.

Combining all this with Google Maps, I was able to get a "streetview" of the grocery and of the house they lived in. Adding in Zillow, I was even able to view what the house looks like inside nowadays. What's more, the directory told me that John's former wife claimed to be his widow, even though they were both alive and living in different cities. Adding in church records and local newspaper articles, I was able to pinpoint where over half a dozen different Erickson relatives were living and what they were doing throughout the period from about 1908 to shortly after World War 2. My wife's family stories she was told as a child had little of this information.

In closing, the photo below, from Google Streetview, shows what John Erickson's store and the Erickson/Walstedt house looks like nowadays. After that, you can see a more recent front view of the house from a Zillow sales listing. It's pretty affordable. Yup, City directories can reveal all sorts of things about family ancestors!

Erickson Store and the House in which he lived with his Sister
in Bemidji, Minnesota

Zillow Photo of the Bemidji House where my Wife's Great-Grandfather Lived
from 1934 Until his Death in 1953