Woo hoo! That’s what some family historians are shouting after learning the Toronto Public Library and Internet Archives have digitized the remainder of the Toronto city directories, adding the years 1970 to 2001 to the already extensive collection.
Now, with very few missing years, we can research almost two centuries of Toronto city directories, from 1833 to 2001.
For easy access, the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society has added a link to each of the digitized directories on its website.
The directories up to and including 1969 can also be accessed on the Toronto Public Library’s website. The library will presumably add the newly digitized directories to their website as well.
According to former chief curator Wayne Reeves, from 1970, the Toronto directory was sometimes issued annually and sometimes biennially. In 1988, the directory was split into two geographic volumes, and there were five volumes in 1999.
When looking at the directories, remember to look at the street directory section at the back of most of the directories. This allows you to look at who the neighbours were at a particular address.
For future reference, I’ve added the Toronto Branch’s list of Toronto city directories to the City Directories section in my Genealogy Research Toolbox. The pull-down menu for the toolbox is among the tabs at the top of this page.
