Wednesday, November 12, 2008

East St. Louis City Directories

Don't get me started about the wonders of city directories. Illinois Harvest has somewhat revamped its interface -- it has colors but the search function is still idiosyncratic -- and its thematic collections include East St. Louis City Directories. (This is great, but why single out ESL and Champaign County only?) These are not transcriptions, they're full PDF (or text) images for 1900, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1912, 1916, 1924, and 1926. I was able to quickly find my mother's father's second cousin, the contractor Jesse Gedney, at 1717 Illinois, in 1900.

And if you are or would like to become a city directory nut, the most thorough article I've seen is "Effective Use of City Directories," by Kory L. Meyerink, AG, FUGA, at ProGenealogists. Let me know if you've seen better.

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