Kenneth R. Marks of The Ancestor Hunt has been on a roll — a Canadian roll, eh.
He has assembled lists of online city and business directories in several Canadian provinces, as well as in the United States — and the list is growing.
These are links to directories available on a number of sites, such as Library and Archives Canada, FamilySearch, Canadiana, Internet Archive, local libraries, and genealogical society collections.
Already on The Ancestor Hunt website are directories for Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
On his website, Mr. Marks explains he has compiled these directories with help. He says, “This activity of presenting links is a collaborative effort between The Ancestor Hunt and Miriam Robbins, who for years has made available the Online Historical Directories website, which presents links to directories of all types that are available online, including free collections as well as those available only via subscription. I wish to thank Miriam for her help in launching this category of records at The Ancestor Hunt.”
A quick way to find a directory for a particular town, city or county in a lengthy list is to do a word search. (Ctrl+F on a PC or Command+F on a Mac.) For example, a search for Peterborough found many directories, some in slightly different regions because of how they were labelled. The word search captured all of them.
Historical directories are a terrific resource for genealogists trying to track down the whereabouts of their ancestors between census years. They also often list a person’s occupation, place of employment, and home address.
The Ancestor Hunt’s compilation of directories is a work in progress, with the remaining provinces and territories still to be added.
Visit the Directories section on The Ancestor Hunt to see the American and Canadian lists.
Warning: Once you start exploring directories, you’ll forget what you were planning to do the rest of the day.
