City Directory Dates

When you are working with a City Directory collection, make sure you have the correct dates on both the photo copy collection and the actual city directory being photo copied.

I was working with a New Jersey city directory in Ancestry dot com and found that the title of the collection did not match the actual book, so my findings of the family names were way off.

 

Notice that the title banner has the year as 1899 but when you look at the first page of the book (image 10 of 333) you see that the city directory being photographed is for the years 1890-91.

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When I am working on a tree and city directories I type up the information like this:

U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995
New Jersey
Paterson
1895
Paterson, New Jersey, City Directory, 1895

Rea
Frank, weaver, h 38 Market
George, loomfixer, h 38 Market
Harry, cleark, h 38 Market
John R, baker, h 38 Market

image 285 of 411
—————-
Brower
Dora, weaver, h 137 Kearney
James, painter, h 137 Kearney
Peter, student, h 137 Kearney

image 67 of 411
==================================
1896
Rea
Frank, loomfixer, h 38 Market
George, Weaver, h 38 Market
Harry, clerk, h 39 Sheridan av
John R, h 38 Market

image (oops forgot to write this down)
———————–
Brower
Peter E, student, 39 Sheridan av
image 71 of 441
========================================
1897
Rea
Frank, weaver, h 38 Market
George, Weaver, h 38 Market
Harry, weaver, h 68 Ryle ave
John R, h 38 Market

image 325 of 472
——————
Brower
Peter E, Student, h 35 Ryle ave
image 86 of 472
=====================================
1898
Rea
Frank, weaver, h 38 Market
Harry, weaver, h 68 Ryle ave
John R, h 38 Market

image 353 of 505
——————
Brower
James, painter, h 35 Ryle ave
Peter E, clerk, h 35 Ryle ave
William, machinist, h 35 Ryle ave

image 83 of 505
=================================
1899 [1890-1891]
Rea
Frank, silkworker, h 55 Haledon ave
Harry, weaver, h 55 Haledon ave
John E, baker, h 55 Haledon

image 238 of 333
———————–
Brower
none that match 1898
==================================
1900
Rea
Frank, weaver, h 1313 Montclair ave
Harry, engineer, h 95 Prospect

image 347 of 613
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So you can see that if I do not confirm the banner date with the actual book then my information is wrong. The people I am reviewing seem to jump from one address to another in one year but actually there is a difference of many years.

So always check and re-check your information.

I hope this post has given you some new information and will help you with your family tree research.

Thank You

Jose from Clarkston, Michigan