Project Download - City Directories

Johnson siblings

As a beginner in genealogical research, I had no idea that the records I attached to people in my online trees could disappear and also did not imagine that there would be any reason that I might discontinue my Ancestry subscription or even just take a break. Now I know better.

Once I learned that collections can disappear from websites, I started to download new documentation as I found it, but what about all those records I had attached to people in my trees before I knew better?

A few years ago I started a Go-over/Do-over tree. The goal was to document this tree from the beginning using all of the knowledge that I had gained since I began in genealogy, and also to make sure that I downloaded all of the documentation that I found on subscription sites.

Last week, I was working on my paternal grandmother's father and the city directories from Manchester, CT where he lived from the time he settled in the US in 1888 almost until his death in 1956. That's a lot of city directories!  So, I opened the folder on my desktop computer to see what I had and although I didn't expect to find perfection, I was shocked to see files like this.

What I found in my Manchester city directory file

Opening the files didn't improve things as there was no indication on the printed pages as to what year's directory they were from.  I had to start over.  Ancestry has many of the Manchester directories from 1888-1956, so this will be a big job and not one I want to botch again. Knowing now that these directories can contain a wealth of information well beyond my ancestors' addresses, I want to make sure I download everything that could help me in my knowledge and research.

A few years of the Manchester city directory are available on the historical society website, in PDF format, in their entirety, and so I downloaded them that way. The directories on Ancestry, however, have to be downloaded one or two pages at a time, so I would have to know what information I would want to save.

I knew that I wanted

• Listings of my great-grandparents and everyone with their surname
• Listings of other family (like the Johnsons, above) and everyone with their surname
• Listings of their FAN club and everyone with their surname
• List of abbreviations used in the listings, usually printed just at the top of the first page of alphabetical listings
• Town maps - when available
• Town history and statistics
• List of churches
• List of newspapers

But was I missing anything?

With a quick search on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars site I found a few webinars on this topic. I must admit that I didn't listen to any of them in full but I read the syllabi and discovered that I had forgotten something; listings of residents by street, a much better way to find your ancestors' neighbors than looking at every name and address in the directory.

I'll also admit that I wasn't going to go there at first. There aren't any big mysteries in this branch of my tree, but writing a post about it gave me the kick I needed. I discovered that the 1923 directory was the first in Manchester to list residents by street. It was first called the Street Directory and later the Numerical Directory. One of the interesting things that the Manchester Street/Numerical Directory tells you is who had a telephone. As of now, I know that my great-grandparents and my great-grandmother's sister who lived in the other half of their two-family home, had telephones as of 1923 which is about the time telephones were found in most households. So, I did add a little time and tedium to my project, but I also learned something interesting.

Also, if your ancestor owned a business, don't forget to look for advertisements and a listing for their business. You may even find them on a page that lists businesses by type, like Mrs. Blanche Rochon, the Clairvoyant or Dr. David Nelson and Merwyn Squires, the Chiropracticers (yes, that is how it reads in the Directory).

I hope you have found this to be helpful in your research, even an experienced genealogist can use a refresher now and then, and if there's something in directories that you think I missed, please feel free to let me know in the comments, which I think I can reply to again!  Happy hunting.