Familyrelatives.com Releases 1,000,000 New UK Post Office & Trade Directories

Here's a press release from FamilyRelatives.com, which was originally published November 12:

Familyrelatives.com today announced the release of over 1 million Post Office records. The exciting new collection is set to grow over the coming months and will prove to be an extremely valuable resource and complement the existing Trade Directories, allowing them to be used side by side. The Post Office collection is, in effect, a Victorian version of today's Yellow Pages covering over 25 counties and major cities of Great Britain spanning nearly a century during Britain’s most prosperous years.

The records hold interesting information of not only ordinary families but also well known past and present companies and high street brands such as Lyons, Marks and Spencer’s and Woolworths, listed as “Toy and Fancy Dealers”.

There are a number of famous names that stand out - residences include Charles Dickens residing at Gads Hill House in Higham, Kent as well as Charles Darwin who was famous for his theories of evolution and wrote The Origin of Species, he is listed as living in Down, Kent as a Private Resident.

The Postal and Commercial Alphabetical Directory, referred to as Kelly’s, contains information organised by County. The early editions, “will be found superior both in quality and extent of information to the Edition previously issued.” The beginnings of these Directories can be attributed to Frederic Kelly when he was appointed “His Majesty’s Inspector of Inland Letter Carriers” at the turn of the 19th century. Kelly established his company and expanded on the original publications and produced directories for a number of UK cities and several other titles.

The earliest directories were published in London where demand for commercial information was greater, followed by other major cities in the United Kingdom. Using Kelly’s association with the Post Office to considerable advantage, he was partnered by Isaac Slater and taking over James Pigot’s in 1853, his market dominance was established so becoming the largest directory publisher in the late nineteenth century.

It is not surprising that these guides were used over 170 years ago by travelling salesmen as reference guides when looking for new trade and opportunities, in effect these Directories were the predecessor to the telephone directory and the Yellow pages.

The format of the publications is split into sections which provides a topographical description of settlements and cities as well as landmarks together with statistical information on the population. Generally alphabetical lists of the Clergy, Gentry, commercial occupations, streets, classified trades and advertisements are published. Many of the later Directories include private residents. An example of the sort of information a Post Office provides is shown below - which includes a fascinating combination of trades including a farmer, a farrier, a boot and shoe man, a beer retailer, and a number of shopkeepers.

Robert Woods a spokesman for Familyrelatives.com said “We are very pleased by the progress our digital archive department is making and we will continue to add further cities and counties covering a larger part of the UK allowing researchers the opportunity to learn what their ancestors were doing over the past 170 years”.

The collection is part of over 700 million historic records available online to all members and visitors by way of an annual subscription of only £30.00 or US$50.00 at www.familyrelatives.com 

Familyrelatives.com has added the following new records

Post Office Records
Postal and Commercial Directory of Wiltshire
Aberdeen Post Office Directory 1862-63
List of Officers of the General Post Officers London Edinburgh Dublin 1892
Post Office Annual Directory Glasgow 1838-1839
Post Office Bath Directory 1920
Post Office Bath Directory 1926
Post Office Bath Directory 1938
Post Office Directory of Bedfordshire 1869
Post Office Directory of Berkshire 1869
Post Office Directory of Buckinghamshire 1869
Post Office Directory of Cambridge 1879
Post Office Directory of Derbyshire 1855
Post Office Directory of Derbyshire 1864
Post Office Directory of Dublin 1888
Post Office Directory of Essex 1859
Post Office Directory of Hertfordshire 1859
Post Office Directory of Kent 1859
Post Office Directory of Middlesex 1859
Post Office Directory of Norfolk 1879
Post Office Directory of Northamptonshire 1869
Post Office Directory of Nottinghamshire 1855
Post Office Directory of Oxfordshire 1869
Post Office Directory of Staffordshire 1864
Post Office Directory of Surrey 1859
Postal and Commercial Directory of Norfolk and Norwich 1868 

For further information visit http://www.familyrelatives.com

AL, CA, FL, IL, IN, NY, OH, SD, and UT New Pages and Updates

I haven't worked on the website in a while...BUT I realized that I had not listed the new pages and updates for the past few months. Enjoy!

New Pages

Escambia County, Alabama - with one link from the Internet Archive

Wilcox County, Alabama -  with one link from the Internet Archive

Escambia County, Florida - with one link from the Internet Archive

Bartholomew County, Indiana - with one link from the Internet Archive

Kosciusko County, Indiana - with one link from the Internet Archive

Beadle County, South Dakota - with one link from Genealogy Trails


Updates

Alabama - now with 10 out of 67 counties linked

Calhoun County, Alabama - one new link from the Internet Archive

Jefferson County, Alabama - 27 new link from the Internet Archive

Mobile County, Alabama - five new links from the Internet Archive

Yuba County, California - three new links from Yuba Roots

Florida - now with four out of 67 counties linked

Cook County, Illinois - two new links from the Internet Archive and Genealogy Today

Indiana - now with 27 out of 92 counties linked

LaPorte County, Indiana -  one new link from the Internet Archive

Genesee County, New York - two new links from the Internet Archive and Genealogy Today

Hamilton County, Ohio - one new link from the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

South Dakota - now with two out of  66 counties linked

Salt Lake County, Utah - one new link from Genealogy Today

Ancestry.com to Acquire iArchives

Press release from Ancestry.com announcing plans to buy iArchives, which includes Footnote.com:

Leading Brand for American Historical Content

PROVO, Utah, September 23, 2010 – Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire iArchives, Inc. and its branded Web site, Footnote.com, a leading American History Web site, for approximately $27 million in a mix of Ancestry.com stock, cash and assumption of liabilities. This acquisition will provide the company with a complementary consumer brand, expanded content offerings, and enhanced digitization and image-viewing technologies.

iArchives digitizes and delivers high-quality images of American historical records of individuals involved in the Revolutionary War, Continental Congress, Civil War, and other US historical events to Footnote.com subscribers interested in early American roots. iArchives has digitized more than 65 million original source documents to date through its proprietary digitization process for paper, microfilm and microfiche collections.

“Footnote.com is highly complementary to Ancestry.com’s online family history offering,” said Tim Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.com. “By promoting Footnote to our Ancestry audience, we hope to expand its reach among researchers who care about early American records. iArchives also brings outstanding image-viewing technology and content digitization capabilities that will improve our leadership position in bringing valuable historical records to the market. We welcome the iArchives team to the Ancestry.com family.”

Upon completion of the transaction, iArchives will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ancestry.com. As part of the transaction, Ancestry.com currently expects to issue approximately 1.0 million shares of common stock. The transaction is subject to various closing conditions and is expected to close early in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Ancestry.com also announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program of up to approximately $25 million of its common stock. Under the authorization, share repurchases may be made by the Company from time to time in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions depending on market conditions, share price and other factors and may include accelerated or forward or similar stock repurchases and/or Rule 10b5-1 plans. Part of the rationale for the repurchase is to offset dilution of equity resulting from the iArchives acquisition. No time limit was set for the completion of this program. The share repurchase program may be modified or discontinued at any time by the Board of Directors.

About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with approximately 1.3 million paying subscribers. More than 5 billion records have been added to the site in the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created more than 19 million family trees containing over 1.9 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.

About iArchives
iArchives is a leading digitization service provider that also operates Footnote.com, a subscription Web site that features searchable original documents, providing over 35,000 paying subscribers with a view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.

Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or to future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "appears," "may," "designed," "expect," "intend," "focus," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "should," "continue" or "work" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements include statements concerning among other things, the proposed transaction between Ancestry.com and iArchives, Inc., including the consummation and anticipated timing of the transaction as well as the expected benefits of the proposed transaction, and the effects of the proposed transaction on Ancestry.com, our subscriber base, our reach, our activities to enhance subscribers' experience, our business outlook, our leadership position and our opportunities and prospects for growth. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this press release. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include a variety of factors, some of which are beyond our control. In particular, such risks and uncertainties include the risk that the transaction does not close when anticipated, or at all; difficulties encountered in integrating acquired businesses and retaining customers, and the additional difficulty of integration when continuing the acquired operation; the adverse impact of competitive product announcements; failure to achieve anticipated revenues and operating performance; changes in overall economic conditions; the loss of key employees; competitors’ actions; pricing and gross margin pressures; inability to control costs and expenses; and significant litigation.

Information concerning additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements is contained under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2010, and in discussions in other of our SEC filings.

These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date and we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

ENG, SCT, CT, FL, IN, IA, MD, MA, MI, MN, NY, NC, SC, WA, and WI New Pages and Updates

In the past month, the following new pages and updates have been added:

New Pages

Stirling Council Area, Scotland - with four links from SCRAN

Litchfield County, Connecticut - with one link from NEHGS

Orange County, Florida - with one link from Central Florida Memory

Elkhart County, Indiana - with one link from the Internet Archive

Washington County, Maryland - with one link from Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage and two from Western Maryland's Historical Library

Barnstable County, Massachusetts - with two links from Historic Map Works

Ontonagon County, Michigan - with two links from MattsonWorks

Clay County, Minnesota - with five links from the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County

Dakota County, Minnesota - with one link from the Dakota County Historical Society

Pennington County, Minnesota - with 14 links from the Pennington County Historical Society

Cattaraugus County, New York - with one link from the Monroe County Library

Chemung County, New York - with one link from the Monroe County Library

Genesee County, New York - with five links from the Monroe County Library

Livingston County, New York - with three links from the Monroe County Library

Niagara County, New York - with one link from the Monroe County Library

Orleans County, New York - with three links from the Monroe County Library

Schuyler County, New York - with one link from the Monroe County Library

Seneca County, New York - with one link from the Monroe County Library

Steuben County, New York - with one link from the Monroe County Library

Wyoming County, New York - with one link from the Monroe County Library

Yates County, New York - with one link from the Monroe County Library

Spartanburg County, South Carolina - with nine links from the Internet Archive

Iron County, Wisconsin - with 34 links from MattsonWorks and two links from Ancestry

Sawyer County, Wisconsin - with two links from MattsonWorks

Vilas County, Wisconsin - with eight links from MattsonWorks


Updates

Yorkshire, England - one new link from the Internet Archive

Connecticut - one new link from Historic Maps Works; now with five out of 8 counties linked

Hartford County, Connecticut - two new links from Historic Map Works and four new links from Distant Cousin

New Haven County, Connecticut - one new link from Historic Map Works

New London County, Connecticut - one new link from Historic Map Works

Florida - now with three out of 67 counties linked

Indiana - now with 25 out of 92 counties linked

Allen County, Indiana - one new link from the Internet Archive

Vanderburgh County, Indiana - one new link from the Internet Archive

Wells County, Indiana - one new link from the Internet Archive

Polk County, Iowa - one new link from Iowa Digital Library

Maryland - now with four out of 23 counties plus the City of Baltimore linked

Allegany County, Maryland - one new link from Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage and one from Western Maryland's Historical Library

City of Baltimore, Maryland - 35 new links from the Archives of Maryland Online

Massachusetts - now with 11 out of 14 counties linked

Barnstable County, Massachusetts - one new link from Historic Map Works

Essex County, Massachusetts - nine new links from Memorial Hall Library

Middlesex County, Massachusetts - one new link from the Center for Lowell History

Suffolk County, Massachusetts - eight new links from Tufts Digital Collections & Archives and two new links from EveNDon

Michigan - now with 23 out of 83 counties linked

Gogebic County, Michigan - six new links from MattsonWorks

Saginaw County, Michigan - three new links from Google Books, seven new links from the Hathi Trust Digital Library, and two new links from the Internet Archive

Minnesota - now with six out of 87 counties linked

Hennepin County, Minnesota - one new link from Phillips Neighborhood Network and two new links from KinSource Archives

Ramsey County, Minnesota - one new link from KinSource Archives

New York - one new link from the Monroe County Library; now with 40 out of 62 counties plus New York City linked

Allegany County, New York - one new link from the Monroe County Library

Cayuga County, New York - one new link from the Monroe County Library

Chautauqua County, New York - one new link from the Monroe County Library

Erie County, New York - one new link from the Monroe County Library

Monroe County, New York - corrected numerous links due to the Monroe County Library changing some of their webpages; added 55 new links from the Monroe County Library

Onondaga County, New York - one new link from the Monroe County Library

Ontario County, New York - four new links from the Monroe County Library

Wayne County, New York - three new links from the Monroe County Library

Wake County, North Carolina - one new link from Wake County Public Libraries

South Carolina - now with three out of 46 counties linked

King County, Washington - one new link from the University of Washington

Wisconsin - now with 16 out of 72 counties linked

City Directories Online Course

Family Tree University, a part of Family Tree Magazine, is offering an online course on city directories, called Exploring City Directories: How to Trace Your Family in Yesterday's Yellow Pages. You can read more about it, as well as sign up for it through Genealogy Insider, the blog for Family Tree Magazine.

UK Historical Directories Links

Ancestry has a great article here about using its newly-updated UK City and County Directories, 1600-1900s. Now, you don't have to have a subscription to Ancestry to read the article, but of course, you do have to have one of the following subscriptions to access this database: a subscription to Ancestry.co.uk (available in the United Kingdom) OR a World Deluxe Membership if you have an Ancestry.com, Ancestry.ca, or some such other national Ancestry subscription. Of course, you can try the World Subscription for two weeks; just make sure you write down the phone number and call them to cancel in plenty of time (think of time zone differences and business hours).

I'm going to do something a little bit differently here. I'm going to share with you some of my trade secrets! ;-) As you have probably guessed, I am collecting a huge list of bookmarks of historical directories at both free and subscription websites, and as you probably can tell, it does take a great deal of time to get all those links added to my website. So here's a little freebie for you: I'm going to share my UK historical directories bookmarks with you, so you don't have to wait until they get on the UK pages! Shhh! This is just for you loyal readers who regularly visit this blog or have subscribed to it through e-mail or your favorite RSS reader.

• United Kingdom Online Historical Directories - from my website
• UK City and County Directories, 1600-1900s (through Ancestry's World Deluxe Subscription portal) - $
• UK City and County Directories, 1600-1900s (through Ancestry's UK Subscription portal) - $
• Bedfordshire Directories - Free
• Turvey, Bedfordshire Directories - Free
• Cambridge Blue Book - Free
• Cumbria/Cumberland/Westmorland Directories - Free
• Genhound - $
• Kelly's Directory of Monmouthshire, 1901 - Free
• Ringmer in Trade Directories - Free
• Longford Directories - Free
• 1787 Nathaniel Jones Directory of Glasgow - Free
• Glasgow Post Office Directories on Internet Archive - Free
• Directories at ScotlandsFamily - Free
• Ireland Directories (includes Northern Ireland) at Irish Family Research - $
• Family Relatives Directories - $
• Direct Resources - appears to be free
• Links to UK Directories, provided by GenUKI - Free
• London Street Name Changes - Free
• Cerne Abbas Directory - Free
• The Original Record - $

Happy Hunting!

MI, PA, and TN New Pages and Updates

New Pages:

Delta County, Michigan - with 10 links from the Delta County Genealogical Society


Updates:

Michigan - now with 22 out of 83 counties linked

Ingham County, Michigan - six new links from the Capital Area District Library

Kalamazoo County, Michigan - one new link from kalamazoogenealogy.org, plus corrected some links from Ancestry, and updated the page to be consistent with the rest of the website

Macomb County, Michigan - no new links, but the page has been updated to be consistent with the rest of the website

Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania - with five new links from the Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network

Davidson County, Tennessee - one new link from Tennessee State Library and Archives

ENG, IN, IA, NC, TX, WI New Pages and Updates

New Pages:

Middlesex, England - with one link from London Lives

Wells County, Indiana - with one link from the Internet Archive

Benton County, Iowa -  with one link from the Marion Public Library

Black Hawk County, Iowa - with one link from the Marion Public Library

Buchanan County, Iowa - with one link from the Marion Public Library

Johnson County, Iowa - with one link from the Marion Public Library

Linn County, Iowa - with 20 links from the Marion Public Library

Marshall County, Iowa - with one link from the Marion Public Library

Tama County, Iowa - with one link from the Marion Public Library

Durham County, North Carolina - with one link from the Internet Archive

Randolph County, North Carolina - with one link from the Internet Archive

La Crosse County, Wisconsin - with 29 links from the La Crosse Public Library


Updates:

England - now with 7 out of 39 historical counties linked, plus the City of London

City of London, England - one new link from London Lives

Indiana - now with 24 out of 92 counties linked

Iowa - now with 14 out of 99 counties linked

North Carolina - now with 7 out of 100 counties linked

Travis County, Texas - one new link from the Austin Genealogical Society

Wisconsin - now with 13 out of 72 counties linked

AK, CA, CO, FL, IL, IN, IA, KY, MA, MO, NJ, NY, OH, RI, SD and WI New Pages and Updates

I have added many links to the site over the past month; however, I haven't been very good about keeping my readers updated as to the changes and new pages. Here's hoping you find something to help your research along!

New Pages

San Benito County, California - with two links from Ancestry and one from Google Books

Fremont County, Colorado  - with one link from GenealogyToday

Chautauqua County, New York - with 18 links from Western New York Legacy

Lewis County, New York - with one link from the Internet Archive

Lincoln County, South Dakota - with one link from GenealogyToday


Updates

Alaska - with one new link from GenealogyToday

California - now with 33 out of 59 counties linked

Los Angeles County - with one new link from GenealogyToday

Monterey County, California - with one new link from Google Books

Sacramento County, California - with one new link from GenealogyToday

San Mateo County, California - with one new link from Ancestry

Santa Clara County, California - with one new link from Google Books

Colorado - now with 13 out of 64 counties linked

Florida - with one new link from the Internet Archive

Illinois - with one new link from the Internet Archive

Cook County, Illinois - with one new link from GenealogyToday

Indiana - with one new link from the Internet Archive

LaPorte County, Indiana - with one new link from the Internet Archive

Tippecanoe County, Indiana - with one new link from the Internet Archive

Iowa - with one new link from the Internet Archive

Kentucky -  with one new link from the Internet Archive

Bristol County, Massachusetts - with six new links from the Internet Archive and one from Google Books

Worcester County, Massachusetts - with two new links from GenealogyToday

Missouri -  with one new link from the Internet Archive

Essex County, New Jersey - with three new links from the Internet Archive

New York - with one new link from the Internet Archive; now with 31 out of 62 counties and New York City linked

New York City, New York - with one new link from the Internet Archive

Summit County, Ohio - with one new link from GenealogyToday

Providence County, Rhode Island - with two links from Google Books

South Dakota - now with 1 out of 66 counties linked

Wisconsin - with two new links from the Internet Archive

Ancestry.ca Completes Collection of Canadian City and Area Directories, 1819-1906

The following announcement is from Ancestry.ca, the Canadian version of the U.S.'s Ancestry.com. I did some checking, and those who have a World Deluxe Subscription at Ancestry.com will also be able to access this expanded city directories collection here.

---

7 Million Names Now Available For First Time

Pre-telephone era equivalent of Yellow Pages provides wealth of information on ancestors of millions of Canadians

June 22, 2010 (Toronto, ON) Ancestry.ca, Canada’s leading family history website, announces the completion of Canadian City and Area Directories, 1819-1906, a rich collection of more than 150,000 pages of historical records, the largest collection of historic Canadian directories available online. The collection includes the names of more than 7 million Canadians who lived during this 87- year-period of national growth.

The first release of City and Area Directories by Ancestry.ca in October of 2008 contained nearly 20,000 pages of records and 5.2 million names. Today’s completion adds a staggering 134,000 pages of records.

Almost anyone with an ancestor who lived in a Canadian town or city during the period from 1819 to 1906 will find an ancestor in the collection. Historically, these records were used in much the same way as we use Facebook today - they were finding aids that allowed people to stay connected.

City directories contain an alphabetical listing of citizens, giving the names of the heads of households, their addresses and occupations. When an ancestor is found a researcher can see their name, home or business address and usually an occupation. For added interest, a further search using the street name will find their neighbours, allowing users to build up a picture of what life was like in the area.

A city directory may also contain a business directory, street directory, governmental directory, and listings of town officers, schools, societies, churches, post offices and other miscellaneous records that help paint a clearer picture of one’s ancestors. *

Aside from finding one’s own ancestors within this collection, history enthusiasts will be able to find records of famous Canadians, including:

• Sir John A. MacDonald - Canada’s first Prime Minister, listed living in Kingston, Ontario 

• Sir Sandford Fleming - Inventor and creator of world time zones is listed living at 213 Chapel Street in Ottawa in 1893, one of his many residences 

• William Lyon MacKenzie - The journalist, politician and rebel leader is listed living in Toronto and working as the editor of The Colonial Advocate

• Louis Riel - Founder of the province of Manitoba and activist for Métis rights, listed as living in Elkirk

Karen Peterson, Marketing Director for Ancestry.ca, comments: “The breadth of information you can learn about your ancestors from records like City Directories will surprise many. They are a very powerful tool for researching family history because they can fill in the gaps between federal or provincial censuses, providing people with much clearer timelines and details about their ancestors and their lives.”

Breakdown of records by region:

Province	Records (Images)	Estimated Names
Ontario	84059	4202950
Quebec	33201	1660050
Nova Scotia	12566	628300
New Brunswick	11051	552550
National and Multi-Province	6201	310050
Manitoba	2514	125700
British Columbia	2016	100800
Newfoundland	1194	59700
Prince Edward Island	927	46350
Alberta	16	800
Total estimate	153745	7687250

To discover the lives of your own ancestors, visit www.ancestry.ca to let the journey begin.

Online Historical Directories Website Receiving Some Publicity

The Online Historical Directories Website has been receiving some very nice publicity lately! First off, the site was mentioned in Volume 11, Number 9 of Nu? What's New?, The E-zine of Jewish Genealogy From Avotaynu, edited by Gary Mokotoff. Next, Pat Richley, a.k.a. DearMYRTLE, mentioned OHDW as a resource in her post, "City Directories - have you revisited this record group?"  And in the August 2010 issue of Family Tree Magazine (recently mailed to subscribers), Sunny McClellan Morton includes the site as a resource in her article on church records, "Soul Searching."

Many thanks for your very kind mentions of this site!

Win a One-Year Subscription to Archives.com, Footnote.com, and NewspaperARCHIVE.com

I've been a long-time subscriber to Woman's Day magazine and receive their e-newsletter as well, which usually includes various contests to win vacations, jewelry, cosmetics and the like. Imagine my surprise yesterday morning when I saw their featured contest was a one year's subscription to Archives.com, which includes access to partners Footnote.com and NewspaperARCHIVE.com!

While Archives.com does not have city directories in its collection, Footnote.com does. Ten lucky winners will be drawn after the contest ends July 24th. No purchase necessary. Go here to enter.

AL, IL, IN, KS, MI, PA, TN, THA, and WI New Pages and Updates

New Pages:

Sedgwick County, Kansas - with two links from the Midwest Historical and Genealogical Society

Thailand - with one link from the Internet Archive


Updates:

Madison County, Alabama - one corrected/updated link from USGenWeb

Sangamon County, Illinois - one new link from University of Illinois at Springfield

Allen County, Indiana - one new link from the Internet Archive

LaPorte County, Indiana - one new link from the Internet Archive

Wabash County, Indiana - one new link from the Internet Archive

Wayne County, Indiana - one new link from the Internet Archive

Kansas - now with 7 out of 105 counties linked

Saginaw County, Michigan  - one new link from the Internet Archive

Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania - one new link from the Internet Archive

Davison County, Tennessee - one new link from the Tennessee State Library and Archives

Dane County, Wisconsin - one new link from the Internet Archives

WA New Pages and Updates

The Washington State Digital Archives has been indexing city and county directories for some time now. Although I have been watching for an announcement on their blog for when these have been placed online, they apparently have not publicized it. I took a closer look today and noticed that several directories are now online, listed under the "Miscellaneous Family History" record collection:

• Benton, Franklin, and Kittitas County Directories, Polk, 1911-2
• Benton, Franklin, and Kittitas County Directories, Polk, 1915-6
• Ellensburg and Kittitas County Directory, Polk, 1923-4
• Lewis and Pacific County Directories, Polk, 1914-5
• Lewis and Pacific County Directories, Polk, 1915-6
• Seattle City Directory, Polk, 1893
• Thurston and Mason County Directories, Polk, 1921-2

I have added all the links to the appropriate county pages: Benton, Franklin, King, Kittitas, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, and Thurston. Benton and Pacific are new pages for this site, so now Washington has 22 of its 39 counties linked.

IL, IN, and TN New Pages and Updates

New Pages

Cass County, Indiana - with one link from Internet Archive

Shelby County, Tennessee - with three links from the Shelby County Register of Deeds


Updates

Peoria County, Illinois - six new links from Illinois Ancestors

Indiana - now with 22 out of 92 counties linked

Allen County, Indiana - five new links from Internet Archive

Tennessee - now with 2 out of 95 counties linked

More California Directories

I have added a TON of links for Sacramento County, California! In fact, all but one are new, and they come from the Golden Nugget Library, San Francisco Genealogy, Google Books, the Internet Archive, and Ancestry. Altogether now, there are 53 new links ranging from 1855 to 1947!

There are three new links from Ancestry on the San Francisco City-County page.

I've created a new page, Monterey County, California, which includes 10 links from Ancestry.

BC, CA, IL, IN, MA, MI, NY, ON, QC, TN New Pages and Updates

New Pages

Yolo County, California - with one link from Ancestry

Jo Daviess County, Illinois - with one link from Internet Archive

Morgan County, Indiana - with one link from Internet Archive


Updates

City of Vancouver, British Columbia - one new link from Internet Archive

California - now with 30 out of 58 counties linked

Illinois - now with 26 out of 102 counties linked

Shelby County, Illinois - one new link from Internet Archive

Indiana - now with 21 out of 92 counties linked

Allen County, Indiana - five new links from Internet Archive

Worcestor County, Massachusetts - one new link each from Internet Archive and Google Books

Kalamazoo County, Michigan - one new link each from Internet Archive and Google Books

Erie County, New York - one new link from Internet Archive

New York City, New York - three new links from Internet Archive

City of Ottawa, Ontario - five new links from Internet Archive

City of Toronto, Ontario - eight new links from Internet Archive

Quebec - six new links from Internet Archive

Davison County, Tennessee - one new link from Internet Archive

CA, IL, IN, KS, MA, NC, ON, OR, PA, TX New Pages and Updates

More directories from the Internet Archive have been linked!

New Pages:

Porter County, Indiana - with three links

Wilson County, Kansas - with one link

Frontenac County, Ontario - with one link

Updates:

Contra Costa County, California - one new link

Edgar County, Illinois - one new link

Shelby County, Illinois - one new link

Wayne County, Indiana - two new links

Kansas - now with six out of 105 counties linked

Suffolk County, Massachusetts - two new links

Wake County, North Carolina - two new links

Ontario - now with 25 out of 50 census districts linked

Multnomah County, Oregon - two new links

Mercer County, Pennsylvania - one new link

Galveston County, Texas - one new link

AR, CA, IN, ME, MN, NC, OR, ONT, PA, and WA New Pages and Updates

Here are recent developments on the Online Historical Directories website:

New Pages:

Greene County, Arkansas -  with one link from the Internet Archive

Riverside County, California - with 16 links from Ancestry

Wayne County, Indiana - with one link from the Internet Archive

Ramsey County, Minnesota - with one link from the Internet Archive

Multnomah County, Oregon - with one link from the Internet Archive


Updates:

Arkansas - now with 10 out of 80 counties linked

California - now with 29 out of 58 counties linked

Indiana - now with 18 out of 92 counties linked

Delaware County, Indiana - one new link from the Internet Archive

Cumberland County, Maine - one new link from the Internet Archive

Minnesota - now with three out of 89 counties linked

Oregon - now with two out of 36 counties linked

City of Ottawa, Ontario - one new link from the Internet Archive

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania - one new link from the Internet Archive

Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania - one new link from the Internet Archive

Buncome County, North Carolina - two new links from the Internet Archive

King County, Washington - one new link from Washington Rural Heritage

More CA Updates

 Even more updates to California pages from Ancestry's new 1940 and 1950 Census Substitute databases!

San Mateo County, California - one new link

Santa Barbara County, California - two new links

Santa Clara County, California - two new links

More CA Updates

Here are a couple more updates to California pages from Ancestry's new 1940 and 1950 Census Substitute databases:

Kern County, California - four new links

Los Angeles County, California - eight new links

CA Updates

Here are more updates to California pages from Ancestry's new 1940 and 1950 Census Substitute databases, which are actually city and telephone directories from these decades:

Alameda County, California - two new links

Butte County, California - three new links

Contra Costa, California - two new links

Imperial County, California - three new links

AL, AZ, and AR Updates

As I mentioned earlier, Ancestry has added many more city directories to its collection, mainly from the late 1940s and the 1950s. Here are some recent updates:

Jefferson County, Alabama - four new links

Mobile County, Alabama - three new links

Montgomery County, Alabama - one new link

Maricopa County, Arizona - two new links

Pima County, Arizona - two new links

Pulaski County, Arkansas - three new links

Union County, Arkansas - four new links

CA, MO, and WA New Pages and Updates

I finally added all the rest of  links (18 more) to directories from Ancestry to the Orange County, California page.  I also added 21 free links to county and telephone directories from the Fullerton Public Library. It took me a loooong time to get this page completed because Ancestry divided up the directories for this county into three parts and I had to check each part to see which communities it contained so I could label the links correctly. I now have only 10 more California counties' directories at Ancestry to link!

I also added a link from the Hathi Trust Digital Library to the King County, Washington page.

I created the Boone County, Missouri page and added a link to it from the Hathi Trust Digital Library. This now makes five counties, plus the City of St. Louis, linked for Missouri.

Atlanta, GA Updates

Thanks to my friend, Amir Dekel, for pointing out the many city directories for Atlanta, Georgia on the Internet Archive! I just added all 30 of them to the Fulton County, Georgia page.

News and General Updates

It's been over two weeks since you've seen an update on this website and I just wanted to let you know what was going on.  Several things have delayed me from posting any updated information to the blog:

1) I started the Online Historical Newspapers website and its corresponding blog and have been busy getting a lot of links and pages set up on that.

2) You may recall that I said a while back that I was changing the name of the website from "Online City, County, and Rural Directories" to "Online Historical Directories". I've been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work to change the names of each of the pages (several hundred) on this site, so of course, that has been taking up time. The reason I've been working on this rather than adding more directories links is that Cyndi Howells of Cyndi's List has been adding links to the pages on this website to her Cyndi's List website, and I want my website's pages to look uniform and consistent.

3) My laptop is not working well...it's in its dying days. I used to work on my Directories and Newspapers websites on my laptop while I was watching TV in the evenings, or while my son or husband was using the main computer. Now, we're all juggling to use the one computer and I can't work on the sites in the evenings during TV time. I'm looking at getting another laptop or netbook, so I hope to resolve this situation in a few months.

I actually have been adding some links to the Orange County, California page, but am not quite done, so have not made an official update yet. Thank you all for your patience and continued readership!

P.S. You may have heard that Ancestry has added quite a few more city directories to their subscription website and labeled it the 1950 Census Substitute. If you have a subscription to Ancestry or can access it through your local library, check it out to see if there are more directories added to your ancestral locations!

Hawaii New Page

I've just added a new state page for Hawaii, with three Polk directories from the days when Hawaii was still a kingdom! These come from Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library and are free to view. I know that Ancestry has city directories for Honolulu as well and these will be added in the future. Also, the Hawaii GenWeb site has transcribed online historical medical directories. So stay tuned for these in the future.

Hawaii online historical directories are very difficult to find, so if you know of any other than the above resources, please e-mail me.