As the Records Show
Canadian Directories
Sherry Irvine, CG, FSA Scot

The arrival of the 21st century more or less coincided with the end of the publication of directories in Canada. For at least 150 years city and regional directories served as a useful source of information about businesses and residents across the country. Several factors combined to bring about their demise including privacy legislation, Internet resources and the expense of production.

Fortunately cessation of publication does not mean directories cease to be available. They will continue to provide useful information about communities and individuals to historians and genealogists alike.

Research Value
Directories place people in a particular place at a particular time, which is the basis of their value for tracking ancestors between census enumerations. If you are able to follow an individual through consecutive directories you may discover clues and valuable genealogical information.

Most directories indicate occupation and sometimes place of employment. Relationship clues turn up as well; a change in the name of a business proprietor can signal the decease of the owner and reveal the successor, sometimes the son or spouse.

Working with maps, addresses in directories can be used to plot the moves of a family; in fact, the directory may provide very specific location information useful in using census returns. Further coordination between directories, maps and census returns tells you something about the social milieu in which your ancestors lived and worked.

Identifying What is Available
The majority of directories are for towns and cities. The first was for Quebec City in 1790 and the second for Montreal in 1819. Provincial directories began later and did not last as long, with the exception of British Columbia which has editions up to the 1950s. Some regions, such as what constituted Canada in the middle 1800s, the Maritime Provinces, western regions and counties in Ontario, also had directories.

There are several ways to identify directories available for research. First, you can check for original volumes in libraries and archives across the country using online catalogs. Large numbers have been reproduced on microfilm or microfiche, some reprinted, and some digitally copied and made available on CD-ROM or via the Internet. Several options for finding those that fit your research are summarized below, beginning with online resources.

• Collections Canada
  The databases at Collections Canada include searchable digitized versions of roughly 100 Canadian directories; Ottawa and Halifax have many listings. The links below take you to the to the directories search page, and to AMICUS, which is a tool for searching the holdings of repositories across Canada.
  
  Directories Search Page
  AMICUS
  
• Virtual Reference Library
  This site is funded by the Toronto Public Library and the province of Ontario; it leads to all sorts of information about Canada, Ontario and Toronto including a number of directories.
• Archive CD-Books Canada
  Several directories are among the list of publications available for purchase in Adobe format on CD-ROM.
• Family History Library Catalog
  The Family History Library does not have an extensive collection of Canadian directories but it is always worthwhile to check it.
• Western Canadian Directories (3rd edition 2003) is a guide prepared by Dave Obee to all western directories on microfilm and microfiche. For western Canada there have been seven microfilming programs, some broadly based and some local. This finding aid sets out, by province and place, the year, what has been copied and the reference number. What you cannot find online can be identified and, certainly within Canada, brought to local libraries on inter-library loan. The book can be ordered from Interlink Bookshop.
  

Conclusion: A Few Tips
The smart researcher keeps in mind that not everyone appears in every directory and not in every year. There may be a delay factor because several months could elapse between collecting the information and printing it. It makes sense to search over several years. Individuals can appear at the town, regional and national level. Keep a map handy, especially for knowing the sweep of a city directory -- perhaps it covers adjacent rural communities where your ancestors lived. Name spellings may not be what you expect and may vary between editions. Directories usually have a street section and an alphabetical section so look at both. In addition, check who is residing at former addresses; it could be family connections.

Those researching Canadian ancestors are fortunate in having such a readily available collection of directories to draw upon for genealogical information going back to the early 1800s.

Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA Scot is an author, teacher, and lecturer specializing in English, Scottish, and Irish family history. She is the author of Your English Ancestry (2d ed., 1998) and Researching Scottish Ancestry (2003), and she is a contributor to several publications. Since 1996, she has been a study tour leader, course coordinator, and instructor for the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University. She teaches online at MyFamily.com. Recently she served a two-year term as president of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

Sherry's Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

• Campbell River Genealogy Society, 19 November 2005
• Nanaimo Family History Society, 20 February 2006
• Australasian Congress, Darwin, Northern Territory 01-04 June 2006

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Ancestry Quick Tip Jamboree

It's time for this week's Ancestry Quick Tip Jamboree! Thanks to everyone who has sent in a Quick Tip. Please keep them coming so that we can keep this tradition going. You can send your tips to: ADNeditor@ancestry.com.

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry Daily News and Ancestry Weekly Digest, please state so clearly in your message.

Have a great day!
Juliana

Google Toolbar
Patty Delmott

There was a lot of good search information in "What Do You Do When You Go Online?" by Paula Stuart-Warren.

There is also a Google Toolbar you can download (http://toolbar.google.com/) and install on your browser (e.g., Internet Explorer...). That way you can be at any web page and begin a search from the Google toolbar without typing www.google.com or going to another browser window to search.

A very nice feature of the toolbar is "Search Site." If I am visiting the Colorado Civil War Casualties Index, I might want to know if there are any Herrick names anywhere on their site. By entering the name "Herrick" in the Google toolbar and clicking "Search Site," I am searching www.colorado.gov for any occurrence of Herrick. However, this may not work as well if you are on a large site like RootsWeb.com searching for a common name.

Also on the Google Toolbar, if I have "Herrick" for my search criteria and click the picture frame icon, I search the internet for all pictures that have "Herrick" in the name.

Google Print
Christine Perham

You might want to try this new service of Google for obscure references to ancestors. I put in "perham maine" just to see what would turn up. Buried amid the documents that referenced Governor Sidney Perham and geographical notations for the town of Perham in northern Maine, it showed me a footnote in the book Revolution Downeast: The War of Independence in Maine, by James Leamon. This footnote referred to the Petition of Mary Perham to the General Court of Newcastle in June 1779. I had flipped through the book previously for general information, but her name did not appear in the chapter text. I would never have read the footnotes at the back of the book, and therefore had missed this connection to an ancestress who was asking the town for help to support her six children while her husband was away with the Continental Army. Having the direct reference to know where to go in the archives for the original words is a real gift. You can't print out the page, but it is an incentive to acquire the book, and it opens up whole new avenues of research.

Digital Device Accessory Kit
Frank Raymond

This is to follow up on two previous comments on camera batteries. For those who are lucky enough to use AA or AAA batteries in their cameras, Duracell makes "Digital Device Accessory Kit" which consists of a 30 minute charger, 4 AA batteries, 4 AAA batteries, and a car adaptor which sells through Costco for about $20. It works on 110 volt AC or 12 volt DC power. It is great for trips. It should be available though other outlets as well and other vendors make similar products.

Try the Village Hall
Melanie Fagan

I had been trying to find information about local history for my Chicago suburb without much luck. The local library had nothing except some Chicago history books. I happened to be at the village hall to pick up some forms and asked the girl at the counter if she new anything about the area's history. It just so happened that they had published a small book a few years ago for a significant anniversary. I was able to buy a copy for $5. The south suburbs often get overlooked in bigger "local" histories that focus on Chicago. This one book was a neat find! So if the area you're trying to get information on is often overshadowed by a nearby "big city," check with the village hall.

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Clipping of the Day
Banks of the Ohio, Emigration
Adams Centinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), 15 November 1820

Banks of the Ohio-- A Vincennes (Indiana) paper of Sept. 12, states that the situation of that place was truly deplorable. Nearly one third of its population appears to be confined on beds of sickness, while the houses of humane farmers in the vicinity are crowded with our fugitive convalescents. Nor is this calamity confined to Vincennes--nearly all the towns on the waters of this state and Illinois are similarly afflicted. By some this is attributable solely to the unprecedented lowness of the streams; by others to this, combined with other causes.

Emigration.--The following is an estimate of Emigration in the first eight months of the present year, from Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales:

To Canada, about - - - - - - 10,000
North America, U.S.- - - - - 6,000
South America - - - - - - 4,000
South Africa - - - - - - 6,000
New Holland and Van Dieman's land - 2,500
East Indies, all parts and all sorts - 3,500
Sailors to foreigh employ - - - 2,000
Fixed residents to Flanders, France and Italy - - - - - - 1,500
Russia - - - - - - - - 350

Subscribers with access to the Historical Newspapers Collection can view this clipping.

Click here to subscribe to the Historical Newspapers Collection at Ancestry.com.

Fast Fact
United States Great Lakes Region Class
06 January 2006 with Lisa Alzo

The Great Lakes Region of the United States is an area with a rich and diverse history. This course will focus on generalized and locality-specific resources of six states in this area-Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. These six states once formed, in part, the first possession of the United States known as the Northwest Territory. A summary of each state's history and geography will be provided, as will tips on where to find important genealogical resources (such as census, land, probate, and vital records), and information on how to document your findings and use the rich history of this area to write about your family. Sign up for this class today!

Product Spotlight

		French Canadian Sources: A Guide for Genealogists Normally this book retails for $39.95, but today you can buy it in the Shops @ Ancestry.com for $35.95.
		Your English Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot) Normally this book retails for $19.95, but today you can buy it in the Shops@Ancestry.com for $15.95.

Thought for Today
George Bernard Shaw

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.