City directories and telephone books are an important resource for genealogists. I love them. They are especially good for tracing ancestors during periods of time when there was no census.
The Alberta Genealogical Society’s Medicine Hat and District Genealogical Society branch has been busy for a while digitizing old Alberta Government Telephone books that they have been making available to the public on their website.
According to Alberta-based genealogist Wayne Shepheard, who recently wrote about this project on his blog, Discover Genealogy, “These are the old printed books distributed before the era of the internet and before the company was privatized and became Telus.”
Directories already on the society’s website are for Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, and Peace River, with more locations to be added.
Take a look at Mr. Shepheard’s blog for more information and a link to the directories. I have already added links to directories in Calgary, Lethbridge, and Medicine Hat to the City Directories section in the Genealogy Research Toolbox on this website.
