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.

Kentucky Updates

I've added one new directory to each of the following pages: Kentucky state page and the Fayette County, Kentucky page. These are from the Kentuckiana Digital Collection, which is just amazing. Not many directories, but lots of other great digital resources! Check it out!

What's Coming in 2010 - and a New Website!

Happy New Year!

While I don't have any new pages or updates to report (I've been busy with holiday happenings and family gatherings, as I'm sure many of you are), I would like to let you know of some things to watch for in 2010.

Today I received an email from the New England Historical and Genealogical Society. They have added the following directories to their subscription website:

• Cleveland, Ohio: Boyd’s Directory, 1857 
• Medford, Mass.: 1930
• Mobile, Ala.: 1838
• Norwalk, Ohio: 1875
• Sacramento, Calif.: 1882
• Toronto, Ont.: 1856

Don't have a subscription to NEHGS? See if your local library does. Mine, the Spokane Public Library, recently added an in-building subscription.

Look for free Polk directories for cities in Washington State to appear on the Washington State Digital Archives website sometime in 2010 (I'll send out a notice).

Ancestry has announced the following databases will be available in 2010.

• Scottish city directories, 1800s–1900s - probably World Deluxe subscription and/or UK subscription
  
• Canadian city and area directories, 1800s–1900s - probably World Deluxe and/or Canadian subscription
• 1950s U.S. city directories (billed as 1950 census substitute) - U.S. Deluxe subscription
  

Again, check your local library to see if they have Ancestry's Library Edition (US libraries) to access city directories (and many other records and databases) for free.

And finally, while this has nothing to do with historical directories, I did want to announce to you, my readers of another new website I've started, the Online Historical Newspapers Website. Like the Online Historical Directories Website, you'll find links digitized historical newspapers online available for free or through subscription. This site will not link to transcribed articles or obituaries, but to whole digitized newspapers only!  And like the directories site, there is a corresponding blog for the newspapers site to keep you updated of changes and additions. Please add the site and the blog to your list of resources!

Happy New Year to you and yours. May 2010 see the coming down of brick walls and successful research!

AK, CA, DC, IL, and WLS New Pages and Updates

With the busyness of the holidays, I haven't done too much with the site, but here are a few new pages and updates for you:

New Pages:

Caernarvonshire, Wales - with 14 links from the Bangor Civic Society (originally listed on the Wales page)

Glamorgonshire, Wales - with one link from the Historical Directories site (not to be confused with my site, the Online Historical Directories website!)


Updates:

Alaska - 13 new links, all from the Alaska-Yukon Territory Business Directory, Polk, 1923-4 at USGenWeb

Orange County, California - three new links from the 1936 County Directory at Ancestry

San Mateo County, California - one new update from the Online Archive of California

District of Columbia - one new update from Genealogy Trails

Cook County, Illinois - the 1928-9 Polk Street Directory from the Chicago Historical Society

Wales - now organized by historical county and links moved to the new Caernarvonshire page; also the page has a new URL, so if you've bookmarked or otherwise linked to it, please make the necessary changes

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Finally, a bit of news: if you have an Ancestry subscription or use the Ancestry Library Edition, you'll discover that they've made it easier to browse their directories database (as well as use their many other databases) by state, then city or county, and finally by year using a drop down menu on the right. For more information, read this post from their blog.

GA, LA, and TN Updates

I have found some more links at state digital archives websites. Also, Taneya Koonce notified me that the Tennessee State Library and Archives website has a list of free online directories for the city of Nashville. Some of them are held by the library and others are at other websites.

Updates:

Georgia - one new link from the Digital Library of Georgia

Orleans Parish, Louisiana - one new link from the LOUISiana Digital Library

Davidson County, Tennessee - four new links from the Tennessee State Library and Archives website, four new links from Google Books, one new link from Jeanne Johnson's website, and one new link from EveNDon.

CA, ON, WI, and WY New Pages and Updates

Here are more California directories from Ancestry, as well as some I found for Ontario at public library websites after reading an article in the latest issue of Internet Genealogy. I also discovered a link to the Wisconsin Historical Society Digital Collection on a genealogy blog I read and found some more directories there.

New Pages:

Napa County, California - with 12 links from Ancestry

San Luis Obispo County, California - with five links from Ancestry

Brant County, Ontario - with one link from the Brantford Public Library

Durham Region, Ontario - with one link from the Whitby Public Library

York Region, Ontario - with one link from the Pickering Public Library

Sauk County, Wisconsin - with two links from the Wisconsin Historical Society Digital Collection


Updates:

California - now with 28 out of 59 counties linked

Alameda County, California - 17 new links from Ancestry

Contra Costa County, California - nine new links from Ancestry

Merced County, California - 12 new links from Ancestry

Stanislaus County, California - nine new links from Ancestry

Sutter County, California - five new links from Ancestry

Yuba County, California - five new links from Ancestry

Ontario - now with 23 out of 50 census districts linked

Oxford County, Ontario - with two links from the Oxford County Library

Simcoe County, Ontario - with one link from the Innisfil Public Library

Wisconsin - now with 12 out of 72 counties linked

Sheridan County, Wyoming - one new link from Ancestry