The Jasia and Schelly Show via DearMYRTLE

For those of you who enjoy listening to podcasts, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, author of Tracing the Tribe blog, and I were guests of DearMYRTLE on her podcast posted today. You can listen to or download the podcast from DearMYRTLE's site. Our portion of the podcast begins about 37:30 into the program. Schelly and I discuss the use of the titles "genealogist" vs "family historian" and touch on other topics as well.

Myrtle is a very gracious hostess and Schelly is a very polished speaker. They both made me feel very comfortable about participating in this podcast. It's a lively discussion that I enjoyed very much. Schelly has a very engaging personality and Myrtle has so much share, I think the three of us could have gone on chatting for hours (but don't worry, we didn't)!

I want to say a special thank you to Myrtle and Schelly for giving me the opportunity to chat with them, promote our community of genea-bloggers, and the Carnival of Genealogy. It was fun!

City Directories: Additional Information

City directories have a lot to offer genealogists and family historians as is evident by the numerous posts I've been able to write about them. In this the last post of this series we'll take a look at the last few pages of the directory and I'll share with you some of my personal thoughts and observations about city directories. Using my R.L. Polk City Directory for Detroit, 1925-1926 as a reference, immediately after the Classified Business Directory section are additional pages for a handful of communities (suburbs) around Detroit. These pages are "Classified Lists of Representative Firms". The first of these lists is on p. 2649 and the pages run through p. 2659. The communities included are: Birmingham, Dearborn, Lincoln Park, Redford, and Royal Oak, Michigan as well as Windsor, Walkerville, and Ford City, Ontario (all three Ontario cities are on one page).

The companies listed on the pages in this last section of the book have almost certainly paid for inclusion. The listings are not uniform as they were in the previous section but interspersed with larger more obvious ads. But commercial listings are not the only reason to look for these community classified ads. At the beginning of each page there is a paragraph describing the community that provides some good information. For example, let's look at the entry for Dearborn:

Population, 4,000. Located on the River Rouge on the M.C.R.R. and D.U.R. (electric), Dearborn Township, Wayne Co. 10 miles west of Detroit. Was settled in 1795 and named after Gen. Henry Dearborn, commander of the American forces at the outbreak of the War of 1812. The town was incorporated under the name of "Dearbornville", later changed to Dearborn. Detroit arsenal was located at Dearborn in 1820. Incorporated as a village in 1893. It maintains Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal, German Evangelical, German Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian and Christian Science churches, a modern high and public schools, also parochial. It has a new Public Library building containing 10,000 titles, 2 banks with capital and surplus of $400,000 and deposits of $3,400,000; hotels, a weekly newspaper, The Press, and a weekly magazine "The Dearborn Independent", electric lights, water and sewage system. The Ford Motor Co's executive offices are situated there. The Stout Metal Airplane Co. is situated in Dearborn Township just outside the village and maintains a flying field illuminated at night and has erected an aircraft mooring mast. St. Joseph's Retreat, a health resort under the auspices of the Sisters of Charity, is situated in Dearborn. A fine golf course has recently been added to the village's many attractions. Trolley and motor bus connecting direct with Detroit every twenty minutes.

I must admit I found parts of this entry amusing. Even though I was born in a hospital in the city of Detroit, I grew up in Dearborn. I don't have any recollections of St. Joseph's Retreat though there is a historic designation sign for it at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Outer Drive in Dearborn. It's referred to here as "a health resort"... this had me chuckling. It was an asylum for the insane. The link I put in above goes to a RootsWeb page that shows some postcards of the building which was torn down in 1963. But I digress. The entry on this page certainly gives a good synopsis of the community that Dearborn was at the time. Each page in this last section gives a similar synopsis of a community (except for those in Ontario) all of which are now known as Detroit's oldest suburbs.

So the thing to take away from this last section is that you may find some interesting tidbits of information on your ancestors' community even if the one they lived in didn't have a city directory of its own... provided it was located near a big city that did have one.

In conclusion then I'd like to mention a few things I haven't touched on in this series but you might appreciate knowing. The first thing is that this is one BIG book! My copy weighs 14.5 lbs. I don't think it was too much after this edition that Polk started publishing the Detroit directory in 2 volumes each year, a west side book and an east side book. I can understand why they needed to do this. This book's size makes it a bit of a challenge to deal with. My advice to anyone who might be thinking they'd like to do some directory research and photocopy what they find is to consider taking a digital camera instead. Make it easy on yourself. You don't want to be turning this baby upside down over and over again to make copies. Or consider viewing a directory on microfilm if you can. That would be easier as well.

Another thing I'd like to mention about using city directories is that the print is very, very small. I highly recommend taking a magnifying glass with you when you plan to access one. Even if your eyesight is good, your eyes will have to strain to read this print for very long.

I have to say that I love my city directory. If you were a reader of my blog back in March of this year you may remember my excitement over having won an eBay bid to buy it and then lamenting how much it cost me to get it. I must say it was well worth the money I paid for it. Not only has it been helpful to have the directory at my fingertips when I want to look something up, but it has also provided me with an emotional link to my ancestors. As I've mentioned in a previous post, all the homes of my ancestors, their schools, their neighborhoods, and even some of their churches cease to exist. I can't stroll the streets where my ancestors lived and imagine what their lives were like (not without a loaded weapon and my doberman anyway). But running my hands over this old book is like reaching out and touching their world. The names of their neighbors, the stores they shopped at, the streetcar lines they used, the parks they visited, the companies they would have seen advertisements for... it's all right here whenever I want to walk the streets of their world in my mind and in my heart.

I hope you've learned something about city directories from this series of articles. It's been my pleasure to share them with you.

My complete series of posts on this topic:

I Won the eBay Bid
What's In A City Directory
City Directories: The Introduction
City Directories: The Indexes
City Directories: The Statistical Department
City Directories: Chronological History
City Directories: Miscellaneous Information
City Directories: Directory of Names
City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders
City Directories: Classified Business Directory
City Directories: Additional Information

City Directories: Classified Business Directory

The last of the main sections of a city directory is the Classified Business Directory. As the title implies this section pertains only to businesses not to individuals. Using my R.L. Polk City Directory for Detroit, 1925-1926 as a reference, the Classified Business Directory section starts on p. 2465 and runs through p. 2648. The title page reads: Polk's, Detroit City Directory, 1925-1926, Classified Business Directory, "Names Appearing under Headings Marked Thus (*) Are Only Inserted When Specially Contracted For" (I take that to mean that there was no fee charged to be listed under general subheadings but if a specialty subheading was requested there was a fee charged for that listing).

The first thing you'll notice when perusing this section is that businesses are listed alphabetically under category subheadings (which are also listed alphabetically). Examples of general category subheadings include: Accountants, Bakers and Confectioners, and Cigars and Tobacco-Retail. Examples of "specially contracted for" listings include: Accountants-Certified Public, Bakers' Machinery, and Cigar Box Mfrs. For the most part, the specialty listings are more specific categories than the general categories.

The individual listings basically just give the name of the business, the street address (and building name if applicable), and in many but not all instances a telephone number. The names of some businesses are in bold print and these are the ones with phone numbers. To be honest I don't know if one had to pay extra to get a bolded listing with a phone number or if telephones were still new and uncommon enough that the publisher simply highlighted them as a convenience to the reader. I checked the listing for my grandfather's bakery and it did not appear in bold print. I know from his business card that he did have a phone at his business but I don't know if he had it by 1926 when my copy of the city directory would have been published. It did however list both locations of his business. In fact, this was how I first learned that my grandfather's business had a second location. No one in the family had ever mentioned that to me.

So while the information in this section is rather sparse (doesn't list business executives, owners, or the like), it's still a good resource for looking up a family business. It's also interesting to note which sorts of business were more popular than others. Some categories have only a handful of entries while others have a whole page or more. The subheading of "Contractor" for instance covers 7+ pages. During the 1920s, when this directory was published, there was a big influx of immigrants to the city and housing was in short supply. This is certainly reflected in the number of contractors doing business in the city at that time.

Coming up next is the final installment in this series: City Directories: Additional Information

Read my series of articles about city directories:
I Won the eBay Bid
What's In A City Directory
City Directories: The Introduction
City Directories: The Indexes
City Directories: The Statistical Department
City Directories: Chronological History
City Directories: Miscellaneous Information
City Directories: Directory of Names
City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders
City Directories: Classified Business Directory
City Directories: Additional Information

City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders

For genealogists, the second most popular section of a city directory is the one that allows you to look up street addresses to obtain the names of the "householders" at that address. Using my R.L. Polk City Directory for Detroit, 1925-1926 as a reference, the directory of households section starts on p. 2065 and runs through p. 2462... this is another large section, the second largest in the book.

So what information does this section have to offer? A short paragraph describing the content is given on the title page, Polk's Detroit Street and Avenue Guide and Directory of Householders 1925-1926, Copyright 1926 by R. L. Polk & Co.

In the following list the streets are arranged in alphabetical order, the intersecting streets being shown. The number of each building on the street is given in numerical order, and opposite the number is placed the name of the occupant or house holder. In the business blocks containing offices the occupants are shown by room numbers where practicable. In all streets excepting Woodward avenue, and Griswold street both sides of the street are included in one list, but owing to the large number of offices, etc., on these streets a division is necessary to make the information comprehensive. The profession, business, etc., of individuals and firms are only given at their respective place of business; to find occupation of householder, refer to Alphabetical List of names.

So, this section then will give us essentially the heads of household living at a given address. In my directory, this section is printed on pink pages. Presumably they were a bright pink when the book was brand new though mine are faded now and barely pink anymore.

Let's take a look at how an entry in this section looks. In my previous post on this subject I excerpted the entry of one surname (Poniatowski) and analyzed it to see what information might be obtained from it. To save you the time of referring to it I'll show it again here.

Poniatowski Adam autowkr h2834 Roosevelt av
" Anthony press opr r6639 Floyd av
" Frank mldr h6639 Floyd av
" John inspr h6403 Field av
" Jos clk r6639 Floyd av
" Jos lab h7184 Holmes av
" Jos soft drinks 3301 Poplar h3999 Tillman av
" Margt Mrs 3999 Tillman av
" Margt press opr r6639 Floyd av
" Walter chauf r6639 Floyd av

For continuity sake, let's now take a look at the entries for 6639 Floyd av and 3999 Tillman av where we have multiple individuals with the Poniatowski surname living. On p. 2183, we find:

FLOYD AV-From 7219 Livernois av west to Wetherby av, 4 north of Warren av w
(then under the cross street "Rangoon av")
6639 Evashevski Albin
Poniatowski Frank

And on p. 2410, we find:

TILLMAN AV-From 3316 Michigan av north to McGraw av
(then under the cross street "Linden" and immediately above the cross street "Poplar")
3999 Poniatowski Jos

So what have we learned from these entries? First off we notice that only one Poniatowski individual is listed at each address which further supports our supposition that the multiple Poniatowskis at each address are related and not coincidentally living in different units of the same building. Secondly, we notice the name of another person living at the 6639 Floyd av address, Albin Evashevski. We can then assume that this building is a duplex or 2-family home (as was common in this neighborhood) since this section only lists house holders and not each head of family.

During the 1920s in Detroit the population was growing so fast that housing was hard to come by. Especially in immigrant neighborhoods. It was not at all uncommon for home owners to rent out a room or two in their house to another family who would then share the common areas such as the kitchen and parlor. Fortunately we can look Mr. Evashevski up in the name directory section to verify that he is in fact a home owner and not a renter. On p. 889 we find the following entry:

Evashevski Albin slsmn Chas A Strelinger Co
h6631 Floyd av

So there we have it then. Mr. Evashevski was a home owner. Two different home owners at one address definitely means a duplex residence. See how nicely the ability to cross check names and addresses works?

Coming up next: City Directories: Classified Business Directory

Read my series of articles about city directories:
I Won the eBay Bid
What's In A City Directory
City Directories: The Introduction
City Directories: The Indexes
City Directories: The Statistical Department
City Directories: Chronological History
City Directories: Miscellaneous Information
City Directories: Directory of Names
City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders
City Directories: Classified Business Directory
City Directories: Additional Information

City Directories: Directory of Names

City Directories: Directory of Names of Citizens, Firms, and Corporations

Continuing with my series on using city directories in genealogy and family history research, we will next look at the Directory of Names section. Using my R.L. Polk City Directory for Detroit, 1925-1926 as a reference, the name directory section starts on p. 509 and runs through p. 2014... this is a huge section, the largest in the book.

For genealogists, the Directory of Names is without a doubt the most popular section of a city directory. The street and avenue guide and directory of householders (which will be featured in my next post) would come in a close second. Together, these two sections can provide a wealth of information on your ancestors. And while they don't provide the exact same information as is found on a Federal Census form, there is some overlap of that data. Of course the bonus is that city directories were published annually (with some exceptions such as the city of Chicago, see "comments" ), making it oh so much easier to track our ancestors. Ya gotta love that!

The first page of this section is titled, "Polk's Detroit City Directory 1925-26". It then contains 4 subtitled sections of information: Abbreviations, Street Abbreviations, Abbreviations Given Names, and Abbreviations Firm Names. Unfortunately, I can't list all the abbreviations on this page in this post. But they are going to be very important to you when researching your ancestors so let's take a closer look at what kinds of abbreviations are listed. It will give you a snapshot of the type of information available to you about your ancestors.

Abbreviations This list covers abbreviated terms for the following categories: job titles (e.g. jwlr=jeweler), types of residences (e.g. apts=apartments), types of roads (e.g. Blvd=boulevard), religions (e.g. R C=Roman Catholic), and directions (e.g. se=southeast).

Street Abbreviations This lists specific street names that appear in abbreviated forms (ones with lengthy names). In my directory there are 18 street names listed. (e.g. Alexandrine Av=Alex Av)

Abbreviations Given Names This section lists the abbreviated forms for 29 first names aka given names. Besides giving you the abbreviations, this list also gives you a synopsis of popular names of Detroit residents at the time. Most of them wouldn't be found on a current list of abbreviated given names for the city of Detroit that's for sure! Some examples on this list include: Arch=Archibald, Eug=Eugene, Sol=Solomon, Theo=Theodore.

Abbreviations Firm Names This sections lists some abbreviated forms for some of the more popular businesses in Detroit in the 1925-26 time period. Sadly, a good many of these companies no longer exist. But if your family was employed at one of them or owned/managed one of them, this directory will give you at least some basic information about it. Some examples include: C M & Co=Crowley, Milner & Co, Hudson M C Co=Hudson Motor Car Co, Studebaker=Studebaker Motor Car Co.

That covers the title page for this section. Now let's look deeper into the section for a sample entry.

Poniatowski Adam autowkr h2834 Roosevelt av
" Anthony press opr r6639 Floyd av
" Frank mldr h6639 Floyd av
" John inspr h6403 Field av
" Jos clk r6639 Floyd av
" Jos lab h7184 Holmes av
" Jos soft drinks 3301 Poplar h3999 Tillman av
" Margt Mrs 3999 Tillman av
" Margt press opr r6639 Floyd av
" Walter chauf r6639 Floyd av

See where the list of abbreviations comes in handy? Let's apply them and see just what information we can glean from the entries under this one surname.

1. [auto=automobile, wkr=worker, h=house] Information: Adam Poniatowski works in the automobile industry and lives in a house at 2834 Roosevelt Avenue.
   
2. [opr=operator, r=renter] Information: Anthony Poniatowski works as an operator and is a renter at 6639 Floyd Avenue.
   
3. [mldr=molder, h=house] Information: Frank Poniatowski works as a molder and lives in a house at 6639 Floyd Avenue. Anthony (of the same surname) rents in this same building and given the same surname and residence we can at least strongly suspect they are related.
   
4. [inspr=inspector, h=house] Information: John Poniatowski works as an inspector and lives in a house at 6403 Field Avenue.
   
5. [Jos=Joseph, clk=clerk, r=renter] Information: Joseph Poniatowski works as a clerk and is a renter at 6639 Floyd Avenue. May well be related to Anthony and Frank Poniatowski who also live at this same address.
   
6. [Jos=Joseph, lab=laborer, h=house] Information: This Joseph Poniatowski #2 works as a laborer and lives in a house at 7184 Holmes Avenue.
   
7. [Jos=Joseph, h=house] Information: This Joseph Poniatowski #3 works in the soft drinks industry at the location 3301 Poplar and lives in a house at 3999 Tillman Avenue. Here's where a quick look into the next section will help us... looking up 3301 Poplar we find it listed just below the street name "Tillman av", which means it's at the corner of the intersection of Poplar and Tillman streets. The rest of the entry is: "Poniatowski Jos soft drinks". It doesn't give us a lot more information to go on except that Joseph probably lived just down the street from his place of business. A lookup at GoogleMaps or MapQuest could confirm this but for now let's move on.
   
8. [Margt=Margaret] Information: Margaret Poniatowski, "Mrs" isn't given as an abbreviation on the title page but I think it's probably safe to assume this indicates she's married. Given her same surname she's probably married to Joseph#3 of "soft drinks" fame who owns the house she's living in at 3999 Tillman.
   
9. [Margt=Margaret, press opr=press operator, r=renter] Information: This Margaret Poniatowski #2 works as a press operator and is a renter at 6639 Floyd av. She's probably related to Anthony, Frank, and Joseph Poniatowski who also live at this address.
   
10. [chauf=chauffeur, r=renter] Information: Walter Poniatowski works as a chauffeur and is also a renter at 6639 Floyd av along with Margaret, Anthony, and Joseph. The 4 of them are all renters at the home of Frank Poniatowski, probably all relations.

Whew! That's quite a bit of information from just one surname entry. But it gives you an idea about the value of using a city directory to look up your ancestors.

There's just one more thing I'd like to mention in this section of the directory and that is the last page of it. On p. 2014 there is a list of Polk's Publications. Besides the city directories they are best known for they also list their National publications: Bankers Encyclopedia (Directory) of the U.S. and Canada, Dental Register and Directory of the U.S. and Canada, Medical Register and Directory of the U.S. and Canada, the National Iron and Steel Blue Book, and Real Estate Register and Directory of the U.S. and Canada. This is followed by a state-by-state list of the city directories Polk published.

Coming up next: City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders

Read my series of articles about city directories:

I Won the eBay Bid
What's In A City Directory
City Directories: The Introduction
City Directories: The Indexes
City Directories: The Statistical Department
City Directories: Chronological History
City Directories: Miscellaneous Information
City Directories: Directory of Names
City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders
City Directories: Classified Business Directory
City Directories: Additional Information

City Directories: Miscellaneous Information

Miscellaneous information... such a broad subject heading and yet it best describes this section of the city directory. It's jam packed with useful information for genealogists and family historians. Some of it will be helpful with ancestor research, much of it will provide detail for those writing up their family histories or writing historical fiction. Using my R.L. Polk City Directory for Detroit, 1925-1926 as a reference, let's take a look at the types of information presented in the Miscellaneous Information section which begins on p. 81 and runs through p.144.

Miscellaneous Information starts off with a subsection on City Government which lists the name of the Mayor (in this case, John W. Smith) and other city officials, members of Common Council, the Board of Educators, the Board of Fire Commissioners (including the location of engine companies), the Department of Health, the Department of Police, and the Department of Public Works to name just to name a few of the departments. The subsection ends with information that is definitely important to genealogists researching ancestors in Detroit... New House Re-numbering System.

In all, there are 32 subsections within Miscellaneous Information. I can't go into detail on all of them here but I would like to highlight a few that I think would be of particular interest to genealogists and family historians.

• WARD BOUNDARIES - Includes a detailed description of the streets that make up the various ward boundaries within the city. Helpful when you have an address for your ancestor but can't find their census record by name. You need to know the ward boundaries to do a "reverse lookup" by address instead of by surname (on Ancestry.com for instance). This subsection also includes polling places so you can look up where your ancestor voted... family historians can include this information in family histories.


• CEMETERIES - Includes a list of all the cemeteries within the city at the time the directory was published. Good to know if you're trying to narrow down the cemetery your ancestor is buried in.


• CHURCHES - Listed alphabetically under a variety of denominations, addresses are included.


• HOSPITALS, HOMES, SANITARIUMS AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS - If your family passed down the name of an orphanage or institution where a family member resided this would be an excellent place to start your research. All facilities listed have addresses included.


• MOTOR BUS LINES - Fun facts to know when writing the family history or a historical novel... how did grandma get across town to visit her sister?


• DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS - look up the name of grandpa's elementary school, the name of the Principal of each school is given too. So if you wanted to relate a story about gramps getting sent down to the Principal's office you can accurately name the Principal!


• SOCIETIES, CLUBS, ASSOCIATIONS, BUREAUS, CHARITABLE AND CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS, ETC. - If you remember hearing that great-aunt Sophie belonged to the Polish National Alliance, you can find out where the meetings were held here.


• STREET RAILWAY LINES (aka Street Cars) - Did the street car line run right smack dab down the middle of the street in front of your mom or dad's house? Here's where you can find out :-)

So often we get caught up in "going back one more generation" in our ancestor research that we overlook all the detail we could find about the generation that grew up right here. This is wonderful, colorful stuff to know about your ancestors, folks. Next time you have access to a city directory think about how much more information you can find besides just the location of your ancestor's house.

I know, I know, you still want to find out where Uncle Jozef and Aunt Malgosia lived. Well that's coming up in the next segment...

Coming up next: City Directories: Directory of Names

Read my series of articles about city directories:
I Won the eBay Bid
What's In A City Directory
City Directories: The Introduction
City Directories: The Indexes
City Directories: The Statistical Department
City Directories: Chronological History
City Directories: Miscellaneous Information
City Directories: Directory of Names
City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders
City Directories: Classified Business Directory
City Directories: Additional Information

City Directories: Chronological History

If you are a history buff or a trivia fan you will enjoy looking through a city's chronological history in its city directory. If you are a genealogist, you will love it. There is so much great information available and presented in a concise form. It's easy to skim through the years and learn about the environment your ancestors' lived in. Using my R.L. Polk City Directory for Detroit, 1925-1926 as a reference, let's take a look at the types of information presented in the Chronological History of Detroit 1669-1925 which begins on p. 50.

The earliest years, for the most part, have brief entries. The entries go in chronological order (not every year has an entry) until 1920/1921 when they begin to have specific dates within a year and are organized January - December. Here are a few sporadic entries from the early years...

1704 - Baptism of first white child.
1710 - First marriage between white people.
1802 - Detroit incorporated as a town.
1805 - Designated as the capital of the Michigan Territory. Every house in
town burned except one. Principal street called St. Anne, now part of Jefferson
avenue. Governors and Judges Plan accepted. "Woodward Code" adopted.
1817 - The Detroit Gazette issued. The Bank of Michigan, Detroit's first
legitimate bank, chartered. University of Michigan established at Detroit;
cornerstone laid September 21st. president Monroe visits here.
1831 - Daily mail service inaugurated between Detroit and the East. The
Democratic Free press and Michigan Intelligencer (now the Detroit Free Press)
first issued.
1832 - Charter granted Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad, which afterwards
became the Michigan Central. Black Hawk war. First cholera epidemic.
1842 - First theatre built. removal of Michigan University to Ann Arbor
completed.
1870 - Population 79,603. Rt. Rev. Casper Henry Borgess third Roman
Catholic Bishop of this diocese to take office here. R.. L. Polk & Co.
incorporated.
1886 - First electric cars for street railway service. Grace Hospital
founded. Ferry seed house burned. Great snow storm April 6th; traffic suspended.
Marvin H. Chamberlain, mayor.
1896 - First moving pictures shown in the city, at Detroit Opera House, by
Bert C. Whitney, machine operated by George W. Craig. Franchise granted first
competitive telephone company, known as the Detroit Telephone company, organized
by Charles flowers, R.H. Brett and W. L. Holmes. Capital stock, $1,000,000.
Later purchased by Michigan Company.
1900 - U.S. Census 285,704 (within city limits). 11,628 telephones in
Detroit area. Population, 304,132 (Greater Detroit).
1906 - October 1 - Work on Michigan Central Tunnel commenced. Home
Telephone Company organized by St. Louis people.
1914 - Thousands out of work, due to general business and industrial
depression. Completion and opening of the magnificent Michigan Central Terminal,
cost $2,500,000. G.A.R. reunion. Auto Show held at Ford Building. Michigan
Savings Bank consolidated with the Wayne County and Home Savings Bank.
1918 - St. Clair Heights annexed to city June 25th.
250,000 women above 16 years of age registered in response to Government
proclamation to determine woman power.
$54,190,000 subscribed for Second Liberty Loan.
$50,000,000 subscribed for Third Liberty Loan.
$80,000,000 subscribed for Fourth Liberty loan.
$5,000,000 subscribed for War Savings Stamps, to July 1st ($219,831 by
pupils of public schools.)
New Charter adopted at election June 25th.
Liberty Forum with Statue of Liberty erected in Cadillac Square for
Patriotic Center.
$10, 500,000 subscribed for patriotic Fund.
State-wide prohibition of liquor took effect May 1st; 3,068 saloons closed
in the State.
Coldest days January 12th and February 5th - 16 degrees below zero. Coldest
weather since 1872.
Detroit-Toledo (part of Dixie Highway) concrete road opened to
traffic.
Auto Show held in Simon Sales co. Building.
Outer Belt concrete road opened to traffic.
Highland park becomes a city.
Greatest coal shortage in the history of the city.
Attendance at State Fair August 30th to September 8th: Total number passed
through turnstiles, 500,000. Attendance Sept. 1st 72,000; Sept. 2nd (Labor Day)
122,300.
Nov. 11th: unprecedented civic demonstration in celebration of the signing
of the armistice closing hostilities in the World War.
Population, 986,699.

From about 1915 on, the entries for each year became substantially longer. By 1919 each entry is more than a column in length. A bit too long for me to include here. But the type of content remains constant; business beginnings and mergers, population counts and epidemics, "firsts" (especially firsts for women), and the occasional weather summary.

This chronology gives a good picture of how the population of the city grew and business and commerce along with it. You can also see how things like WWI and prohibition impacted the community as well as health care crises and politics. This section of the city directory is virtually a fountain of facts about city events and should not be overlooked when doing family history research.

Coming up next: City Directories: Miscellaneous Information

Read my series of articles about city directories:
I Won the eBay Bid
What's In A City Directory
City Directories: The Introduction
City Directories: The Indexes
City Directories: The Statistical Department
City Directories: Chronological History
City Directories: Miscellaneous Information
City Directories: Directory of Names
City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders
City Directories: Classified Business Directory
City Directories: Additional Information

City Directories: The Statistical Department

Continuing with this series on using city directories in genealogy and family history research, we will next look at the statistical section. Using my R.L. Polk City Directory for Detroit, 1925-1926 as a reference, the section with statistics starts on p. 11 and runs through p. 49... it's a fairly big section with one heck of a lot of statistics!

The section is titled "Statistical Department, Annual Review of Detroit's Civic, Commercial, Financial and Industrial Activities". After the title it goes on to say:

The statistical data regarding Detroit is grouped under the following heads: The Board of Commerce, Federal Reserve Bank, The Banks and Trust Companies, The Stock Exchange, The City, Cities of Highland Park and Hamtramck, The Grosse Pointe Villages, The County, Federal Educational, Industrial, Public Utilities, Public Buildings, Etc., Notable Facts Regarding Civic and Industrial Detroit, Chronological History of Detroit 1669-1925.

Some of the statistics about the city of Detroit are of more interest to genealogists than others. For our purposes today we'll look at one subset of "The City" and "Notable Facts Regarding Civic and Industrial Detroit" and we'll leave the chronology for another post.

Some of the most interesting information for genealogists in "The City" is the subsection for the Department of Health. Here we find a fascinating collection of information about deaths in the city of Detroit. Here's a few samples...

The outstanding features of the [Detroit] health situation for 1924 are:
A saving of 1181 lives as a result of the next to lowest death rate in its history. The death rate of 1924 was 11.4 per 1,000 population as compared with 12.4 in 1923. Only once before has the death rate been as low as it was last year. In 1921 the rate was 11.0.

In 1924 the birth rate was 27.0, in 1923 it was 26.8 per 1,000 population.

Detroit learned the value of vaccination and revaccination in 1924. Sixteen hundred and ten cases of smallpox with 163 deaths. There were more deaths from small pox during 1924 than in the ten preceding years combined.

During 1924 there was a total of 359 cases of poliomyelitis resulting in 60 deaths.
...Very little effective work can be done to prevent the spread of this disease. Most cases give no history of known contact.

In 1923 there were 205 deaths from diphtheria; in 1924 there were 162.

In 1924 there were 1,521 deaths from pneumonia while in 1923 there were 1,949. The death rate for the past year was 134.6 as compared with 185.6 per 100,000 population in 1923. While the death rate does show a gratifying improvement it is still far from satisfactory since pneumonia is still the most important cause of death in Detroit.

During the year 1924 there was such a pronounced rise in the incidence of rabies both in animal and man as to warrant the passage of an ordinance affecting dogs. Such a ordinance was passed May 6th, which provided that all dogs must be either vaccinated against rabies or kept on a leash or muzzled at all times. There were 210 rabid animals examined by the Department's laboratories in the year just passed. Four human beings lost their lives as a result of rabies.

The ten principal causes of death in 1924 were:

1. Pneumonia
2. Organic Heart Disease
3. Congenital Debility, Malformation and Premature Birth
4. Tuberculosis
5. Violence (except suicide)
6. Cancer
7. Apoplexy and Cerebral Hemorrhage
8. Bright's Disease and Chronic Nephritis
9. Diarrhea and Enteritis
10. Acute Contagious Diseases (Measles, Scarlet Fever, Whooping Cough, and Diphtheria)

Now does that paint an interesting picture of Detroit in the middle of the "Roaring 20's" decade, or what? There is equally interesting information available on a number of other topics of interest but for now we'll move on to the next section.

On p. 34 we have a really great section titled, "High Spots in a World-Renowned City". This section is a treasure trove for tidbits of information about this city of Detroit back in 1924. This is the stuff Trivial Pursuit games are made of ;-) Here's some examples:

Detroit is the oldest city in the United States between the Allegheny mountains and the New Mexican plains; is, with the exception of Washington, the most beautiful city in the country, and is the fasted growing city in its class.

Detroit has an official mermaid - a female athlete as swimming teacher at Belle Isle Beach.

Detroit has the largest music publishing house in the world.

Detroit homes prior to 1851 were mostly lighted with sperm oil and candles, in that year with gas and kerosene and in 1885 with electric lights and gas mantles.

Detroit is a city of contented labor.

Detroit has the tallest hotel in the world - the Book-Cadillac Hotel - opened Dec. 1, 1924. It is 397 feet high, with 29 stories, 1129 guest rooms and 20 stores; cost $16,000,000.

Detroit leads the world in soda and salt production.

Detroit is he third city in the country in number of autos stolen, New York being first.

Detroit leads all cities in America in the production of disinfectants.

Detroit is a leader in the number and completeness of its bakeries. A modern baking plant cost $2,000,000. (Yikes! Could my grandparents' baking company have been worth this kind of money???)

Detroit has among new industries the manufacture of manophones.

Detroit has two of the largest scarf-pin manufacturers in the world.

This sort of information goes on and on for pages and pages. Some of it is impressive, some of it is just a hoot! But where else can you put your hands on this kind of trivia? This book is a must-check when writing up your family history or for period research if you are writing historical fiction.

Coming up next: City Directories: Chronological History

Read my series of articles about city directories:
I Won the eBay Bid
What's In A City Directory
City Directories: The Introduction
City Directories: The Indexes
City Directories: The Statistical Department
City Directories: Chronological History
City Directories: Miscellaneous Information
City Directories: Directory of Names
City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders
City Directories: Classified Business Directory
City Directories: Additional Information

City Directories: The Indexes

Continuing with this series on using city directories in genealogy and family history research, we will next look at the indexes. Using my R.L. Polk City Directory for Detroit, 1925-1926 as a reference, the indexes come right after the Introduction page. There are two indexes included; a General Index and an Index of Advertisers. Let's start with the General Index first.

The General Index is one side of one page in length and in the case of my directory it is on p. 8. This index lists alphabetically the main topics of the directory. It does not list the names of businesses or individuals but it does list the page numbers where sections that do list individuals and businesses begin ("Alphabetical List of Names... 510"). It also lists the topics covered in the Statistical Department Report, and miscellaneous information about the city. So in this General Index we find such topics as: Asylums, Hospitals, & Homes, Board of Health, Churches, Department of Street Railways, Election Districts, Fire Department, Incorporated Companies, Legal Aid Bureau, Michigan Legislature, Newspapers, Physicians and Surgeons, Renumbering Ordinances, Societies-Secret and Benevolent, Trade and Labor Unions, and Waterworks.

Let's say you have an address of your ancestor from a census record and a street map of Detroit from the 1920s. You could then use this index to look up churches or local organizations to find the ones closest to the home of your ancestor. These could be valuable sources for finding additional documents about them.

The Index of Advertisers is two full pages in length and the print is very fine. This index lists all of the companies that paid to have an advertisement in the directory. And there are many of them. This index is handy to have if perhaps you are researching a business owned by one of your ancestors. The directory is so large that it would take you several hours to go through it page by page to see if your ancestor's business might have an ad. So taking a quick check here in the Index of Advertisers is the best place to start.

The ads listed in the Index of Advertisers appear either in the Buyer's Guide section, which is printed on goldenrod colored pages which are thicker than the rest of the pages of the directory, or as elongated ads that run on the top, bottom, or outer edge of regular listing pages of the directory.

That about sums it up for the indexes in city directories. They are the gateway to the information presented elsewhere in the directory and essential for putting your finger on specific information in an efficient manner.

Coming up next: City Directories: The Statistical Department

Read my series of articles about city directories:
I Won the eBay Bid
What's In A City Directory
City Directories: The Introduction
City Directories: The Indexes
City Directories: The Statistical Department
City Directories: Chronological History
City Directories: Miscellaneous Information
City Directories: Directory of Names
City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders
City Directories: Classified Business Directory
City Directories: Additional Information

City Directories: The Introduction

City directories are a wonderful resource for genealogists. I've written about them before in the way of an introduction but now I'd like to continue my series with a more in-depth look at the kinds of information you can get from a city directory. Today we'll take an initial look at the information available in city directories and how you can use it in your genealogy and family history research.

Using my R.L. Polk City Directory for Detroit, 1925-1926 as a reference, I'd like to start with the Introduction. In this directory, the Introduction is on p.7. I have no idea what the first 6 pages consisted of as they are missing from my copy. The Introduction is brief, covering only one page.

The page starts out with a brief description of the directory, indicating that it is 2,670 pages in length (yow-za!). Then it goes on to give a brief history of the city of Detroit including some raw data about the geography, commerce, and population. Detroit's growth is evident in the numbers given... in the year 1900 it was 28. 75 square miles in size; in the year 1925 it had grown to 139 square miles! The population of Detroit and the surrounding area in 1900 was 374,000 but by 1925 it had grown to 1,561,437! If your immigrant ancestors came to Detroit during that period of time you can imagine the social, economic, and industrial growth they would have seen. Most likely it would have been greater than anything they might have witnessed in their homelands.

The Introduction goes on to list the sections of information in directory including: A general index, Statistical Department Report, a Chronology of Detroit from 1669-1925, and miscellaneous information such as federal, state, county, and city executives, lighting, public welfare, recreation, city plan, city boundaries, churches, commercial organizations, schools, banks, hospitals, railway and bus routes, newspapers, parks, etc. The next section is a Buyers' Guide consisting of advertisements, followed by the alphabetical directory of names of citizens, firms, and corporations. Then comes the street and avenue guide of householders and the classified business directory. The final section consists of classified business directories of some surrounding cities (Birmingham, Ferndale, Lincoln Park, Redford, Dearborn, and Royal Oak, Michigan as well as Windsor, Walkerville and Ford City, Ontario).

So this Introduction page teases us with just a bit of information about Detroit and its residents. We can already see that there is a wide variety of information available about the people and businesses that made up the city in 1925-26. There are sections to look up individuals and sections to look up commercial interests. And there are sections of adverstisements that will give us a peak at the products and services available to our ancestors. And from the looks of it, there's enough history of the city included to give us great background information for writing our family histories. We're off to a good start!

In future posts this series will take a closer look at each of the sections mentioned above and how the information contained therein can be used by the genealogist/family historian.

I'd like to say thank you to Mike Clement at the Unofficial Footnote Blog for the mention of my previous article in his recent blog post. Thanks Mike! Footnote.com does have some city directories online so you might want to check there for easy access to a directory of interest to you. And I'd also like to mention that Happy Dae has an article on City Directories on the ShoeString Genealogy web site. Thanks for the comment Dae.

Coming up next: City Directories: The Indexes

Read my series of articles about city directories:
I Won the eBay Bid
What's In A City Directory
City Directories: The Introduction
City Directories: The Indexes
City Directories: The Statistical Department
City Directories: Chronological History
City Directories: Miscellaneous Information
City Directories: Directory of Names
City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders
City Directories: Classified Business Directory
City Directories: Additional Information

What's In A City Directory?

A city directory can be an outstanding resource for both genealogists and family historians. R. L. Polk published city directories for many U.S. cities starting back in the 1870s. These directories are available in public libraries in print and on microfilm and in some instances online. They have massive amounts of information in them including residential and commercial listings for each building in a given city.

The directories actually have a cross-listing of information. So you can look up a person's name and get their address or you can look up a street address and find the name of the person or business occupying that address. What's more you can also find the names of other occupants in a multi-unit building or all of the neighbors living on the same block as your ancestor. And while the U.S. census was taken only once every 10 years, city directories were for the most part published annually (many were not published during WWII). So they are very good resources for tracing residential moves in the years between censuses.

I've used city directories many, many times in the course of my personal genealogy research but it wasn't until I purchased one that I realized just what a valuable resource they are. They are so much more than just an aid to locating residents and businesses. In the next few weeks I'll be taking a closer look at the very rich resource city directories are and examining their value/use to genealogists and family historians. Stay tuned... you may just learn a thing or two ;-)

I'll leave you with a list of few major cities that R. L. Polk has published directories for:
Ann Arbor, MI
Baltimore, MD
Boston, MA
Buffalo, NY
Chicago, IL
Cincinnati, OH
Cleveland, OH
Columbus, OH
Denver, CO
Detroit, MI
Grand Rapids, MI
Indianapolis, IN
Kansas City, MO
Memphis, TN
Milwaukee, WI
Minneapolis, MN
New Orleans, LA
New York City, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
St. Louis, MO
St. Paul, MN
San Antonio, TX
San Francisco, CA
Washington, D.C.

There are many more of course. May I suggest you check the web site City Directories of the United States of America for a much more extensive listing.

Read my series of articles about city directories:
I Won the eBay Bid
What's In A City Directory
City Directories: The Introduction
City Directories: The Indexes
City Directories: The Statistical Department
City Directories: Chronological History
City Directories: Miscellaneous Information
City Directories: Directory of Names
City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders
City Directories: Classified Business Directory
City Directories: Additional Information

I Won the eBay Bid!

I did it! I won the bid on eBay for this not-so-pretty book. I probably spent too much for it, but these books don't go up for sale all that often. And the prices in the rare book stores... yeesh!

Do I need this book? No. I just wanted it. Do you know what this book-with-no-cover is? It's a 1925-26 R.L. Polk City of Detroit Directory. I bought it for $132.50. With shipping and insurance it came to over $144.00. It sounds like a lot of money for a book I don't need doesn't it? I must admit that I feel a little guilty spending that kind of money on a book I don't need. But I'm justifying it to myself by remembering that my daughter buys several books in this price range every semester (have you seen the price of college text books lately?!?). And she rarely gets more than 50% back on resale. I'm thinking I can probably get what I paid for the directory back when I'm ready to part with it (unless of course Ancestry.com finally gets around to putting city directory databases back online).

So what will I use it for? Every genealogist knows about the value of city directories. How many times do you wish you had a city directory available at your fingertips? All of my immigrant ancestors came and settled in Detroit and they were all here by 1925. It was an exciting time in Detroit (Remember my Roaring 20's post?), and their Polish neighborhoods will all be well documented and accounted for in this book. I figure with the price of gasoline these days I'll probably save a hundred bucks just not having to make multiple trips to the library to look up info I'll need for my family histories and novels. That sounds like a good rationale doesn't it? ;-)

So now I just have to wait for delivery. It shouldn't take too long. The seller is here in Michigan. Oooh! I'm so excited!

Read my series of articles about city directories:
I Won the eBay Bid
What's In A City Directory
City Directories: The Introduction
City Directories: The Indexes
City Directories: The Statistical Department
City Directories: Chronological History
City Directories: Miscellaneous Information
City Directories: Directory of Names
City Directories: Street Guide and Directory of Householders
City Directories: Classified Business Directory
City Directories: Additional Information