Rainy Day Genealogy Readings

17 April 2009

City Directories on Internet Archive [Reference Shelf]

Periodically, I like to compile lists of available online resources for this blog, mostly because the web is a mess, and I love to organize information. I also actually refer to lists I have compiled myself, so it makes my own research a little more handy.

Today I am presenting a list of digitized city directories as available on Internet Archive. I limited this list to directories that give general directory to citizens of the locales-I have not included directories that were limited to businesses or business men; nor have I included professional directories like medical directories, etc. I'll save those for another post. Note that some of these books were uploaded to Internet Archive from the Google Books scans.

Researchers in Indiana and North Carolina are particularly lucky here, as the ACPL and UNC contributed a vast number of directories. There are smatterings from other states, both rural and urban.

As always, you can check my Google Books Index for ongoing cataloging of genealogy-oriented books from Google Books.

Arizona
Tucson:
* 1881

California
Los Angeles:
* 1915

Richmond:
* 1914-1915

Sacramento:
* 1868
* 1921

San Francisco:
* 1908
* 1915
* 1920
* 1921

Colorado

Denver:
* 1871 (Includes regions of Idaho, Nevada, etc.)

Connecticut
Hartford:
* 1799
* 1896
* 1897
* 1898
* 1899

New Haven:
* 1840
* 1842
* 1899

Georgia
Atlanta:
* 1867-1868

Augusta:
* 1859-1860

Illinois
Chicago:
* 1844
* 1855
* 1856
* 1863-1864
* Blue Book, 1883-1884

Galena:
* 1854

Paris:
* 1908-1909

Shelbyville:
* 1909

Urbana-Champaign:
* 1878-1879
* 1883-1884
* 1890
* 1893
* 1895-1896
* 1898
* 1900
* 1902-1903
* 1904
* 1906
* 1908
* 1910
* 1912
* 1914
* <1916
* 1918
* 1919-1920
* 1921
* 1922
* 1925
* 1927
* 1935
* 1936
* 1937
* 1940

Wheaton:
* 1915-1916

Indiana
Allen County:
* 1906

Bartholomew County:
* 1903-1904

Fort Wayne:
* 1860
* 1864-1865
* 1867
* 1868-1869
* 1870-1871
* 1874-1875
* 1875-1876
* 1876-1877
* 1877
* 1878
* 1882-1883
* 1883-1884
* 1885-1886
* 1888
* 1898
* 1901
* 1902
* 1903
* 1906
* 1907
* 1910 Parts I and II
* 1911
* 1912
* 1915 parts I and II
* 1916
* 1917
* 1918
* 1919

Hartford:
* 1895

Indianapolis:
* 1855
* 1857
* 1858
* 1865-1866
* 1867
* 1870
* 1875
* 1877
* 1889
* 1890
* 1891
* 1894
* 1899
* 1901
* 1902
* 1904
* 1906
* 1911
* 1912
* 1916
* 1918
* 1919
* 1921
* 1922

Kokomo:
* 1910

Lafayette:
* 1909-1910
* 1920, Parts I and II

Michigan City:
* 1893-1894
* 1909-1910

Richmond:
* 1857

South Bend:
* 1921

Valparaiso:
* 1893

Whitley County:
* 1897

Kansas
* 1916

Maine
Portland:
* 1912

Maryland
* 1858

Michigan
Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Washtenaw County:
* 1916

Detroit:
* 1845
* 1846

Saginaw:
* 1915

Union City:
* 1909

Minnesota
Minneapolis/St. Paul:
* 1885

Stillwater:
* 1876-1877

Missouri
Jefferson City:
* 1900

Nevada
Carson City, Reno and Washoe County:
* 1921

Virginia City, Gold Hill, Silver City, American City:
* 1864

* See also: Colorado

New Jersey
Newark:
* 1838-1839
* 1851-1852

New Brunswick:
* 1909-1910

New York
Albany:
* 1869

Brooklyn:
* 1912

Buffalo:
* 1832

Manhattan:
* 1837, Volume I, Volume II
* 1839
* 1853
* 1907
* 1914

* Social Registers, 1887 Volume I, Volume III, Volume IV, Volume V, Volume VI, Volume VII, Volume VIII

Plattsburgh:
* 1913

Schnectady:
* 1862-1863
* 1864

Utica:
* 1883

North Carolina (Note that these city directories have been organized by category and keyword on Internet Archive, therefore I have linked to the aggregate pages for these cities, and listed below the years available as of this posting).

Asheville:
* 1887, 1890, 1896-97, 1899-00, 1900-01, 1909, 1910, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1922

Burlington:
* 1920-21

Charlotte:
* 1875-76, 1905-06, 1907, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1920

Concord:
* 1908, 1913-14, 1916-17, 1920-21, 1922-23

Durham:
* 1887, 1923

Elizabeth City:
* 1923-1924

Fayetteville:
* 1915-1916

Gastonia:
* 1910-11, 1913-14, 1918-19, 1921-22, 1923-24

Goldsboro:
* 1916-17

Greenville:
* 1916-17

Hendersonville:
* 1915, 1921-22

Hickory:
* 1920-21

High Point:
* 1908, 1910-11, 1913, 1919, 1921-22, 1923-24

Kinston:
* 1923-24

Lexington:
* 1916-17

Lumberton:
* 1916-17

Monroe:
* 1922

New Bern:
* 1916-17, 1920-21

Raleigh:
* 1883, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1896-97, 1899-00, 1901, 1921

Salisbury:
(See Spencer)

Spencer:
* 1907-08, 1913-14, 1915-16, 1917, 1919-20, 1922-23

Statesville:
* 1916-17, 1922-23

Washington:
* 1916

Wilmington:
* 1865-66, 1871, 1877-78,1889, 1922

Winston-Salem:
* 1908, 1912, 1913, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1921, 1922, 1926, 1927

Ohio
Cincinnati:
* 1861

Cleveland:
* 1859-1860

Mount Vernon:
* 1876-1877

Sandusky:
* 1867
* 1877

Wooster:
* 1900

Oregon
Portland:
* 1956
* 1957
* 1959
* 1962

Pennsylvania
Sharon:
* 1919

South Carolina
Charleston:
* 1851
* 1852

Tennessee
Nashville:
* 1865

Utah
Salt Lake City:
* 1879-1880
* 1883-1884
* 1892-1893
* 1909

West Virginia
Parkersburg:
* 1907

14 April 2009

When RDGR Got Its Groove Back [Personal]

Well, take one part family houseguests, one part husband's birthday, three parts massive party that left the house in entirely too much disarray, blend gently with one tummy bug shared by toddler with parents, and you have a recipe for a neglected blog!

At any rate, I am actually wearing real clothes today, as opposed to pajamas, so I'm expecting good things out of both myself and my time this beautiful Tuesday! I have a number of posts backlogged, both here and on GYR of Contra Costa, including a report on my recent visit to Alhambra Cemetery in Martinez, and a number of resource spotlights focused on Internet Archive. Here's to a (hopefully) productive day!

23 March 2009

Genealogy and History Channels on YouTube [Reference Shelf]

ResourceShelf pointed out the European Library YouTube channel in a recent post. I was reminded that YouTube is actually a very lush source of information for genealogists... something I forget when I'm turning to YouTube for quick Elmo videos and the latest music. I was amazed at how much there was of interest!

Here are some interesting channels I have found, all with appeal for genealogists:

* Roots Television- Of course!

* The European Library- Includes links to videos highlighting libraries of member countries.

* UK National Archives Channel

* Spelman College- Haven't uploaded a video in a while, but the videos on their Oral History project are great.

* New York Public Library

* History Channel

* Southern California Genealogical Society

* Reno County Genealogy Society

* Family Tree Magazine

* Teapot Genealogy

* Genealogy Guy

* Allen County Public Library

* Genealogy Gems

* Genealogy Scrounge

* Family History Expos

* Elyse's Genealogy Videos

* Travel Film Archive

20 March 2009

Spring Has Sprung [Reference Shelf]

Since we moved into our new rental home a few months ago, my husband and I have been busy clearing out the large backyard of ivy and other plant-creep. The home and garden were clearly loved, but in the past ten years the owners of the home started to grow elderly, and just couldn't keep up with the garden tasks the way that they had over the fifty years they lived here. It's a work in progress:

It's been a sweaty and often muddy job, but the backyard is starting to get into shape for a summer vegetable bed. Watching the buds emerge from the stark greys and blacks of the fruit trees, watching a small bird build a lint and leaf nest outside of my office window... these moments of spring have been very close and poignant to me this year, perhaps because I am watching it all with a very inspired and wide-eyed toddler in tow.

It got me thinking about the relationships our ancestors had to land. As we trace out relations back through the years, moving out from the urban landscapes in which many of us live, through the neatly gridded suburbs, to the orchards, ranches and farms which sprawl through our family histories like expansive landscapes, you have to wonder what legacies of a relationship with spring, growth, land and earth we have inherited over the generations. You have to wonder, as well, what lessons and values we have lost.

I poked around and found some interesting links to online historical vignettes and information about all sorts of ways we have interacted with The Great Mother Earth over the generations. Hope you enjoy and are inspired by some of them the way I have been. Happy Spring to everyone.

***

* The American Gardening Museumincludes a small but very nice online exhibition of New England gardening from the 1920's through the 1940's.

* Wessels Living History Farm of Nebraska has a great website covering Midwest farming techniques and history from the 1920's through the 1960's. The site includes some Quicktime video interviews and oral histories with Nebraskan farmers.

* The LOC has some great materials online documenting how we turn to the land in dire times, like the War Gardening and Home Storage of Vegetables manual published in 1919.

* Growing a Nation, from the USDA and Utah State University, offers tons of information about historical farming, including a great Flash program about the history of American agriculture, and a very informative timeline of American agriculture throughout the decades.

* Harvest of Freedom from Cornell University outlines the history of kitchen gardens in America, and includes close-up images of historic seed catalogs and gardening guides.

18 March 2009

(Almost) Wordless Wednesdays: Sweet, Sweet Family History

My husband's Great-Great Grandfather, John Richard McIntosh, the famous confectioner of Columbia, South Carolina. Date unknown.

16 March 2009

What's in Your Wallet? [Reference Shelf]

I had a great time at the monthly California Genealogical Society meeting last week, seeing and meeting quite a few of my Geneablogger and Facebook genealogist friends. The presentation and talk by Frances Dinkelspiel on her book Towers of Gold was an unparalleled trip back in time to the California of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

A great tip came from Ms. Dinkelspiel when she touched on her use of resources through the eight years she spent researching for the book. She mentioned the use she made of electronic resources available through local libraries like The San Francisco Public Library.

A lightbulb went off over my head... no longer living in San Francisco, I hadn't thought of checking the SF library website for what's available electronically. Having lived in the Bay Area for ten years now, and having moved alot, I have library cards and active accounts in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and Contra Costa!

A quick drive through the library sites for those libraries yielded me some great treasures which I don't have access to otherwise: The San Francisco Chronicle from 1865-1922, Sanborn Maps California, HeritageQuest, and all sorts of other resources I've been laboring without for years!

So the tip is: Check out the electronic resources available from your local library; you may be pleasantly surprised!

And the question is: What library cards are in your wallet?

15 March 2009

Bring Back the Sixties! [Tidbits]

Alexander Street Press recently launched a new online database and archival repository, "The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives", and is offering a free trial through the end of March. From the website:

The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960–1974 brings the 1960s alive through diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. With 150,000 pages of material at completion, this searchable collection is the definitive electronic resource for students and scholars researching this important period in American history, culture, and politics. The database currently has over 34,000 pages.

I didn't live through the sixties, (dating myself here), but of course it was an important decade and I've grown up in the wake of the cultural quakes that took place then. And who doesn't love primary documents???

To login, perform a search and, when prompted for login information:

userid: bringback
password: thesixties

[Via ResourceShelf]