Fun with City Directories

City Directories can be helpful in showing locations and occupations of a person, but they can also provide a window into the community in which they lived through its advertisements, and listings for business, occupations, churches, schools and social organizations.  The 1867 city directory for Savannah published the new city law instituting a variety of business licenses and includes the yearly fees (for example, a liquor license cost $150, a license for a “two horse dray or truck” was $24).  Keep in mind this is 1867 dollars.  Apparently the post-Civil War southern city of Savannah was in need of more revenue as just about every business and occupation you could think of was required to pay a license fee.  A city directory may include a classified listing of businesses (kind of like the “Yellow Pages”) which included occupations such as “Reporter of Fashion” which included a Madame Gradart and a Madame Massart.  My ancestor B. R. Armstrong was listed under “Masons (Brick) and Builders.”  There were “Amusements, Institutions of”, “Oyster and Lunch Saloons,” and “Bowling Saloons.”  There was also a “Teacher of Penmanship.”

The 1871 Savannah directory had lots of advertisements, many with fun illustrations like the ones below:

At Ancestry.com you can use the “Card Catalog” to dig into Ancestry.com’s description of its United States City Directories.  Look to the right side of the page for a browse tool that shows a listing of directories by city and dates of publication -- very helpful when trying to track an ancestor’s residences and occupations over a number years.  Although I could search across a number of years, I found that the search engine sometimes missed some possible listings depending on how the name is listed.  I’m knee deep in going through each directory year by year looking for listings of my Davis and Armstrong ancestors and possible cousins such as Grovensteins.  One question I’m trying to answer is if W. Hunter Davis was always living with his family, or not.  I’ll report next week on my findings. 

Sources:

City Directory, 1867. N. J. Darrell and Co., Publishers.  Savannah, Georgia, City Directory, 1867.  Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.  Accessed 1 June 2013.

Directory of the City of Savannah for 1870.  Compiled by Alex. Abrams & Co. J. H. Estill, Publisher and Printer. Savannah, Georgia, City Directory, 1870.  Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.  Accessed 1 June 2013.

Purse’s Directory of the City of Savannah. Savannah: Purse & Son, 1866.  Savannah, Georgia, City Directory, 1866.  Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.  Accessed 1 June 2013.

Haddock’s Savannah, Georgia directory.  Savannah, J. H. Estill, 1871.  Savannah, Georgia, City Directory, 1871.  Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.  Accessed 1 June 2013.