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.

Seattle's Special

Seattle Public Library
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Seattle Public Library (SPL)

The SPL is one public library in a different league than any other in this series. Not only is its main branch also a FamilySearch Affiliate library, but it has America’s Genealogy, the Seattle Times going back to 1895, and Sanborn Fire Maps that I have not found anywhere else. Most libraries only have Sanborn maps of the State the library is in. The Library of Congress has many maps from locations around the US, but none after about 1920. Seattle has newer and more Sanborn maps. Some of this material is not available even on the big “pay” genealogy sites. And we haven't even mentioned that SPL also has a large genealogy collection if you visit them in person. Seattle has done a lot of stuff wrong, but the library is done right. There are some advantages to living in the region's largest city.

Regional Library Access

There has been a fair amount of concern/discussion about paid versus free genealogy sites. Many feel that the "big" sites want to get as much money out of the researcher as possible. However, these are not simply "big businesses" that run television commercials. Most of them offer free access to people using libraries that subscribe to the services. Almost all of them offer free access to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That organization estimates this is a value to its members of around $900 per year. In short, you can spend a lot of money on research sites, but you can also access the information inexpensively, or even for free.