It is always easy to overlook sources that, at first glance, may not provide any meaningful addition to the family story. The lowly city directory falls into that category. My advice has always been to never leave a stone unturned when compiling information on one's ancestors. A city directory can fill the gap that was looming in the family record.

With new family researchers, I usually get a blank stare when I ask if they've utilized a city directory to chronicle the family residences over time. I must then explain that city directories are like telephone books—but before telephones were invented. And in a way, genealogists can treat them like we do phone books. They're taken for granted, mundane, but infinitely useful. We may still remember the thrill of seeing our own names printed there for the first time. Isn't it still a thrill to see an ancestor's name in print in a contemporary source?

City directories have been in use for over two hundred years. At first they only contained the listings of the prominent members of the city, followed by the services most needed by the citizenry: the barber, the cobbler, the attorney . . . As time went on they attempted to become a compendium of every person living there. Advertisements helped pay for the printing and today we view these ads with a smile as they reflect the quaintness and charm of...

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