The Ontario Genealogical Society’s OGS weekly eNewsletter held fabulous news for those of us with ancestors who lived in Toronto.
Thanks to funding from the OGS Toronto Branch and a partnership between the Toronto Public Library and Internet Archive, city directories for eight missing years between 1910 and 1926 have now been digitized and are available to search free online.
The Toronto city directories newly added to the Internet Archive collection are for the years 1910, 1915, 1916, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1925 and 1926. Links to the directories, from 1833, are available on the OGS Toronto Branch website.
Here’s hoping the digitizing of Toronto directories continues.
Visit Directories in my Genealogy Research Toolbox for directories across Canada.
Thanks for this excellent tip. Once the pdf is uploaded from the site, that wonderful “Control f” feature creates the search box for you to place your “surname of interest”. Then all references to your surname come up for you to scroll through. What a great computer command that is often overlooked.
Maybe that “Control f” and other such little known computer ‘codes” could be a topic of one of your future posts.
Thanks Gail for your service to the genealogical community.
Good suggestion, Bill. I’m surprised my CTRL F keys haven’t worn out.
Interesting stuff, directories. I looked up 38 Bellwoods Avenue in Toronto where my grandparents lived from 1953, just to see who lived on the street then. Many anglophone names as well as some other European names but here and there the word “foreigners”! Not much help there! Would this be because the resident didn’t provide the info, or the “enumerator” couldn’t get the information? There were 5 on this one page alone. Some did note “vacant”, “absent”, even “Jewish school” – but no name, yet the Anglican Church was named. I know it was a pretty ethnic neighbourhood when my grandparents moved there in the 50s- Polish, Ukrainian, German, Jewish, etc. Directories certainly tell a lot about a neighbourhood!
I love directories. I must look at the Lovell’s Montreal Street Directory almost every week. I sure wish there were more Toronto directories online. Regarding your comment, are you writing about directories or voter lists?
This is the first I’ve heard of someone being listed as a foreigner in a city directory. Usually people are identified with their occupation. Where did you look at the 1953 directory?