City Directory – Pennsylvania – McAleer

City Directory can show you where your family lived and what their occupation was, so learn how to use the City Directories.

Here is a short slide presentation looking for the McAleer family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania during the 1890’s,

I am using the Ancestry dot com collection of City Directories.

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Here is what the YEAR drop down list will look like. I found the year 1903 and using that page, I captured an example for year.

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Below are several years I looked at and I explain on each what to look for.

Notice that the McAleer name does not show up in the 1890 City Directory

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In the 1892 City Directory a James McAleer shows up. He is a machinist and lives at 438 E Orange.

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By 1896 there are many more McAleer’s but they may not be from the same family group because they all live in different addresses.

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In 1897 there are only two (2) addresses showing for the McAleer name – 438 E Orange and 133 N Ann.

If we trace these two families we might find that they are related.

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By 1898 we again have three different addresses.

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In 1899 only four McAleer’s show up and they live in three different addresses.

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A City Directory can also help you determine if a person is your target person as in this census where the address on the census is verified on the City Directory.

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I hope this short “How To” tutorial will help you work with City Directories on Ancestry dot com.

Thank You

Jose from Clarkston, Michigan, USA