I'm in the Book: A Look at City Directories
Family historians seek records that provide their ancestor's name and give a sense of what they were doing in a specific time and place. While the census is great for this work, city directories are an important addition. City directories provide an alphabetical list of names of those in a community and were often published annually. At the very least, city directories provide an address for a person but they may also supply other information like marital status and occupation. In this presentation we will look at the history of city directories in the United States, what information they hold, and most importantly, where to find them.
Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, researcher, and instructor whose focus is genealogy, social and women's history. Her published works include 3 books, numerous articles published in magazines and online, & Tracing Female Ancestors. She is the editor of the Utah Genealogical Association’s magazine, Crossroads. Her writings can also be found on the GenealogyBank blog. She has presented to diverse groups including the National Genealogical Society Conference, Alberta Genealogical Society Conference, Geo-Literary Society, & the Legacy Family Tree Webinar series.