Within a week, the number of digitized Ontario Vernon city directories on FamilySearch has shot up from 257 volumes to 465. That’s a whopping 80 percent increase.
Steve Fulton, president of Ontario Ancestors, created the chart below to show which directories have been digitized and uploaded as of yesterday.
Source: Ontario Ancestors.
Ontario Ancestors and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) first announced in February they were working with FamilySearch to digitize about 1,300 directories. They said they expected the project would take about two years to complete.
Vernon directories were published yearly, by city, from the 1890s to 2014.
A free FamilySearch account is required to view the pages in each individual digitized directory. Setting up an account takes about 15 seconds.
Windsor and Toronto directories
If interested in researching ancestors who lived in Windsor, the University of Windsor has digitized Vernon city directories from 1912 to 1942 and directories from Union, ACME and Might that range from 1888 to 1968.
The Toronto Branch of Ontario Ancestors has posted on its website Toronto city directories from 1833 to 1969.
Links to these city directories and many others across Canada are in my Genealogy Research Toolbox.
Hello Gail
Thanks for your very helpful post about recently digitized Ontario city directories, which will be very helpful for Toronto Public Library staff to update its finding aid for Digital Ontario City Directories:
Digital Ontario City Directories
https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/history-genealogy/lh-digital-ontario-city-directories.jsp
This page links to more than 1,000 digital Ontario city directories that were originally published between 1853 and 2013, which have been digitized by several organizations from the collections of libraries and archives across the province. The list is arranged alphabetically by community name.
In addition, links to Toronto city directories in digital formats are provided on separate pages on the Toronto Public Library website.
Digital Toronto City Directories (1833 to 1969)
https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/history-genealogy/lh-digital-city-directories.jsp
Places in Digital Toronto City Directories https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/history-genealogy/places-in-digital-toronto-city-directories.jsp
Provided are approximately 1,750 direct links to more than 100 places now part of the City of Toronto, that had separate listings in local directories or had their own directories. Many of the place names survive as communities, neighbourhoods and streets in Toronto.
Barbara Myrvold
Local History Senior Services Specialist
Toronto Public Library
One of my favourite resources is old city directories. Thanks for sharing!