City Directory Search

Search the OCR full text of city directories on the Internet Archive across many years at once, without downloading the scans. Each result links to its page scan.

1 · Directories

Query notes: filtering and other collections
  • A collection's ID is the last part of its address: archive.org/details/allen_county is collection:allen_county.
  • Many library collections mix directories with yearbooks, family histories and other genealogy material. Narrow them by title: collection:allen_county AND title:("city directory").
  • Add the city to keep one place only: title:("fort wayne" AND "city directory"). Combine conditions with AND, OR, NOT and parentheses.
  • Limit by year with AND year:[1900 TO 1920]. Volumes with no year in their catalog record are left out by this filter.
  • Filter by title, not subject. Subjects are inconsistent, and many directories are tagged only genealogy.
  • A query loads at most 1,000 volumes, so filter large collections first. Loading adds to the list below; it does not replace it. Remove volumes with × to keep cities apart.
Common collections (click to fill the query box, then Load):
to
No directories loaded yet

2 · Search terms

Search tips
  • Put words in quotes to require them to appear together, e.g. "N Meridian" 1234. Case, punctuation and line breaks are ignored, so "N Meridian" also matches N. Meridian.
  • Quoted terms are also much faster. Without quotes the Internet Archive returns every passage containing any one of the words, and common words like N or Meridian can take a minute per volume or time out.
  • The street directory section (usually in the back) is arranged by street and house number. To look up an address, search house number + street, e.g. 1234 N Meridian.
  • Common Polk abbreviations: av avenue, h householder, r resides, wid widow, (c) "colored," used in older directories to designate Black residents.
  • OCR often confuses 0/O and 1/l, and multi-column layouts can run lines together. If nothing comes up, try a shorter term or an alternate spelling.
  • Page links include ?q=, so the viewer highlights your term. The two-page view shows the matching page next to its neighbor.

3 · Results

YearTermOCR excerptScan
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