Corrections Made to Jefferson Co., AL Page

I do make mistakes on my website from time to time. And I DO appreciate when someone points them out! The last thing I want is an error or broken link to frustrate my visitors.

Thanks go to Ben Peterson of the Southern History Department at the Birmingham (Alabama) Public Library. I had found two links to Birmingham city directories at Google Books and had posted them on the Jefferson County, Alabama page. Somehow I didn't take the time to read the title page, like I normally do. If I had, I would have realized that these city directories were for Birmingham, England! Ben was kind enough to point this out to me, and I have made the necessary corrections.

To view Birmingham, Alabama directory links, visit my Jefferson County, Alabama page.

To view Birmingham, England directory links, visit my Historic County of Warwickshire, England page (this page is new to the site).

IL, ME, MD, MA, MI, NY, OH, and WI New Pages and Updates

Here are more updates to historical directories found at the New England Historical and Genealogical Society website:

New Pages:

Androscoggin County, Maine - with one directory from NEHGS

Updates:

Cook County, Illinois - three new directories from NEHGS

Maine - now with eight out of 16 counties linked

City of Baltimore, Maryland - one new directory from NEHGS

Suffolk County, Massachusetts - one new directory from NEHGS

Wayne County, Michigan - two new directories from NEHGS; also corrected links to three directories from the Hathi Trust Digital Library

New York City, New York - six new directories from NEHGS

Rensselaer County, New York - one new directory from NEHGS

Hamilton County, Ohio - one new directory from NEHGS

Lucas County, Ohio - one new directory from NEHGS

Dane County, Wisconsin - one new directory from NEHGS

Summit County, OH New Page

At long last! I have completed the page for Summit County, Ohio with 93 links from the Akron-Summit County Public Library website and one from the New England Historic and Genealogical Society. There are probably directories for this county at Ancestry, as well, but this is a great start! Also, this now means my Ohio page has 30 out of 88 counties linked!

Thanks to Joe Beine for the tip! Check out his wonderful resources here. He and his helpful websites have recently been featured in an article in Discovering Family History (November/December 2009 issue). Congratulations, Joe!

IL, MA, MO, NH, NY, OH, and QC New Pages and Updates

I'm taking another break from adding links from Ancestry and have been adding some from the New England Historic and Genealogical Society, some to St. Louis, Missouri directories at Google (thanks, John!) AND from the Akron-Summit County (Ohio) Public Library. The page for the latter is not quite ready; it takes some time to download each directory (and there are a lot!) to view the details (location[s] covered; compiler; verify the publishing year). Meanwhile, here are the latest I've added from the NEHGS site, which is a subscription website, as well as the St. Louis directories. Stay tuned for the Summit County, Ohio page to be added in the next week or so.

New Pages:

St. Louis County, Missouri - with one link from Google Books

Carroll County, New Hampshire - with one link from NEHGS

Franklin County, New York - with one link from NEGHS

Lake County, Ohio - with one link from NEGHS

Lorain County, Ohio - with one link from NEHGS

Portage County, Ohio - with one link from NEHGS


Updates:

Cook County, Illinois - four new links from NEHGS

Worcester County, Massachusetts - three new links from NEHGS

Missouri - now with five out of 74 counties linked plus the City of St. Louis

City of St. Louis, Missouri - three new links from Google Books

New Hampshire - now with seven out of 10 counties linked

Cheshire County, New Hampshire - one new link from NEHGS

Cuyahoga County, New Hampshire - one new link from NEHGS

New York - now with 24 out of 62 counties plus New York City linked

New York City, New York - one new link from NEHGS

Ohio - now with 29 out of 88 counties linked

Erie County, Ohio - one new link from NEHGS

Huron County, Ohio - one new link form NEHGS

Medina County, Ohio - one new link from NEHGS

Stark County, Ohio - one new link from NEHGS

Quebec - one new link from NEHGS

San Diego County, CA New Page

I finally completed the page for San Diego County, California which includes 34 links from Ancestry and one link from the San Diego Historical Society. I have looked all over to find websites that might have online directories for this county, without success, with the exception of the historical society. If you know of any, please let me know.

Butte County, CA and other CA New Pages and Updates

In my last post, I mentioned that many public libraries are scanning and putting their local directories online. On a whim last night, I googled "butte county library" just to see if there were more directories for that county than what I had found on Ancestry (my husband's Midkiff ancestors were there in the early twentieth century). To my delight, I found that the Butte County Library district had indeed scanned and uploaded directories in .pdf format to the Internet. One directory included several surrounding counties, so here are the new pages and updates to reflect my finds:

New Pages:

Colusa County, California - with two links from Ancestry and one from the Butte County Library

Sutter County, California - with two links from Ancestry and one from the Butte County Library

Tehama County, California - with two links from Ancestry and one from the Butte County Library

Yuba County, California - with two links from Ancestry and one from the Butte County Library


Updates:

California - now with 22 out of 58 counties linked

Butte County, California - 14 new links from Butte County Library


If you have ancestors from San Diego County, California, stay tuned for the release of that page in the near future!

A Change in Name

I've decided to change the name of the website to Online Historical Directories, rather than Online City, County, and Rural Directories. The reason is that "city, county, and rural" are only a part of the historical directories I'm linking to. There are farm, church, business, community, medical, voter, school, telephone, and lodge directories, as examples.

You'll still see "city, county, and rural" on many pages until I get them changed over, but I feel the term "historical" is more accurate and encompasses the variety of directories that I'm finding online.

I'm still stunned at the amount of directories I have found online, both for free and at subscription websites. What I have linked to so far on the website is really only the tip of the iceberg! We are so fortunate to be living in this digital age with access to resources becoming easier and easier.

Many public library districts are scanning and placing their directories online, because they're finding that not only is it not horribly expensive to do so, but it can be done in small, do-able chunks of time. Also, the images don't take up a ton of expensive web space, especially if they are done in .pdf format. Even smaller public library districts have been able to put their local directories online because of these advantages, and I'm finding a plethora of resources out there that I'm very eager to share with you.

I appreciate your patience in getting the resources you're specifically looking for linked on the site. If there is ever a specific location that you would like to see linked sooner than later, drop me a line and I'll be happy to work on getting "your" location up and running!