· Invaluable for Chicago's early history, city directories include not only names and addresses, but occupations and place of employment. Be advised, women are only listed if they were the head of household or employed.
· Chicago was a mere 7 years old. In addition to listing the inhabitants and businesses of the young city, the slim volume includes a 15-page historical sketch and 12 pages of Chicago statistics.
· The white telephone directory, also known as the whitepages, has undergone a significant evolution over the years, transitioning from print to digital formats. In this article, we will explore the history and transformation of the white telephone directory.
We have a complete collection of Chicago city and telephone directories, dating from 1839 to the present. A searchable database is available for the years 1844, 1851, 1859-68, 1871, 1873, 1881, 1890, 1910, and 1917.
· If you do not find the city of interest in the online collection, study the U.S. City Directories and U.S. Telephone Directories pages of this guide for complete lists of print and microform directories at the Library of Congress.
· Over time, theWhitePages became an integral part of communities, fostering connections among neighbors, friends, and businesses. Before the age of smartphones and social media, the WhitePages were the go-to source for finding someone’s phone number or address.
Why are these so important for your ancestor research? Because they include years beyond the available City Directory years! 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s.
