Upgrading Illinois

Two recent announcements of upgrades to already valuable resources. I'll let the announcers speak for themselves:

The Newberry Library's ChicagoAncestors.org, where mappable items from local publications are now appearing.

The Illinois State Genealogical Society's web site, including online databases. ISGS of course will be hosting the Federation of Genealogical Societies annual meeting in Springfield this fall.

Your old genie newsletters rendered useful, at least in Chicago

Today was going to be the day for a long leisurely post about a quirky compendium on the history of religion in Indiana, but there's no time. Fortunately, the good folks at the Newberry have just posted on their blog good news that speaks to one of my long-held pet peeves: unindexed local genealogy newsletters and magazines.

They contain great information but there is rarely any way to go back and find it, even if you know it's there. (PERSI is great but doesn't help much on this because it is not an every-name index, using mainly article titles. For you newbies, get on HeritageQuest through your local library to learn about it.)

Basically, the Newberry has mapped all specific locations mentioned the Chicago Genealogist going back to 1969 on their Chicagoancestors.org site, with links to references to the articles so it's possible to follow up if you can get hold of the print edition. Read the original post for all the details and credits to the interns.

Still more confusing Chicago City Directories!

Back in April I blogged about the many books hiding under the simple guise of "Chicago City Directory for [year]." Besides the free sites Newberry Library's Chicago Ancestors, Chicago History Museum, and Illinois Harvest, Footnote.com is also in the fray.

Key new information here: what Footnote.com calls the 1871 Chicago City Directory is apparently identical to Illinois Harvest's Edwards' ... annual directory ... of Chicago. v.14 I say "apparently" because the Footnote.com version includes two additional title pages, one characterizing it as a "Fire Edition" and claiming that its information has been carried up to December 12, 1871, but so far the pages I have viewed contain the same information in the same format as before.

Each of these online sources has its good points, and each has directories the others lack.

The Newberry's site is linked with other very useful resources for Chicago research, including a mapping function and the Chicago History Museum's book documenting the 1911 street renumbering in PDF format. It also breaks the directories up into units by letter so that you don't have to download the whole thing. It has directories designated as 1866, 1870, Edwards' Census 1871, 1875, 1880, 1885, 1892, and 1900. (Check my earlier post for more detailed citation proposals, especially for the confusing 1870-1872 period.)

Illinois Harvest requires you to download the whole thing, but it prints up very nicely and it preserves the original page order, which is no small matter if you've struggled with Footnote.com. As far as I know IH has only two directories, Edwards' volume 12 (1869-1870), and Edwards' volume 14 (1871, not the same as "Edwards' Census" displayed at the Newberry site).

Footnote.com, the only pay site discussed here, has more directories than anyone -- 1843-1849, 1851-1889, 1902-1903, and 1908-1909. You can search across years and save wanted pages in a "gallery." But. The last three years are incomplete as of midday 27 July 2008. And many of the complete directories have their pages out of order. Each directory's unpaginated front matter is dumped at the back, making it an adventure to find the title page for proper citation, and the variously paginated portions of the directory are usually presented, not in their original sequence (which heaven knows was arbitrary enough), but by page number. For example, the residential directory's page 21 is followed by the business directory's page 21, and so forth. Also, Footnote.com has taken the liberty of renaming the 1874-5 directory as "1874," 1875-6 as "1875," and so forth through 1878-9. The print quality is a bit below the Newberry and Illinois Harvest standard. (Some related discussion on Michael John Neill's Rootdig blog and on the Association of Professional Genealogists' listserv, both of which are free and should be lurked on by any wannabe genealogist.)

Lest we forget, the Chicago History Museum has the 1928 "criss-cross" Chicago directory on line (and many other on and off line resources). But you will need to know the street on which your research target lived in order to find him or her, as (from my point of view) the directory only has the criss and not the cross. I found it a little touchy to get loaded but it would probably help to have the latest PDF reader.

The fact is that Chicago researchers who don't live next door to a major genealogy library can't do without any of these four sites. And we can't afford to call "1871 Chicago City Directory" an adequate citation, either.

Those confusing Chicago city directories

The Newberry Library's Chicago Ancestors web site has just added images of Chicago city directories for 1870, 1871, 1880, and 1885. Believe it or not, they don't overlap with the directories that Illinois Harvest recently uploaded, which I blogged Saturday as "1869-1870" and "1871."

As with many genealogical sources, these directories weren't meant to be a systematic collection of documents for 21st-century researchers. And what we call them isn't what they were actually titled. I have happily cited "1871 Chicago City Directory" as a source of genealogical information and thought I'd recorded enough information to enable me or anyone else to return to the same source. Not quite. Do as I say, not as I did.

Here are fuller citations for the Chicago city directories recently released at Illinois Harvest and Chicago Ancestors, in chronological order. Comments and corrections are welcome.

Edwards' Annual Director [sic] to the Inhabitants, Institutions, Incorporated Companies, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Business Firms, etc., etc., in the City of Chicago, for 1869-1870. St. Louis & New York: Edwards & Co., 1870. Digital images of the book available at Illinois Harvest, which calls it "Edwards' ... annual directory ... of Chicago. v.12."

Edwards' Annual Director [sic] to the Inhabitants, Institutions, Incorporated Companies, Manufacturing Establishments, Business, Business Firms, etc., etc., in the City of Chicago for 1870-1871. St. Louis & New York: Edwards & Co., 1871. Digital images of the Newberry Library microfilm available at Chicago Ancestors, which calls it "1870 City Directory."

Edwards' Fourteenth Annual Directory of the Inhabitants, Institutions, Incorporated Companies and Manufacturing Establishments of the City of Chicago, Embracing a Complete Business Directory for 1871. Chicago: Richard Edwards, 1871. Digital images of the book available at Illinois Harvest, which calls it Edwards' ... annual directory ... of Chicago. v.14

Chicago Census Report; and Statistical Review, Embracing a Complete Directory of the City..., by Richard Edwards. Chicago: Richard Edwards, 1871. Digital images of the Newberry Library microfilm available at Chicago Ancestors, which calls it "1871 Edward's Census."

(NOTE: THE ABOVE TWO ARE DIFFERENT BOOKS. My great-grandfather Charles Schriber, soda manufacturer, is listed at the same address in both, at page 799 in the first and page 989 in the second, and with additional information in the second.)

The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago. 1880. Chicago: The Chicago Directory Company, 1880. Digital images of the Newberry Library microfilm available at Chicago Ancestors, which calls it "1880 City Directory."

The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago. 1885. Chicago: The Chicago Directory Company, 1885. Digital images of the Newberry Library microfilm available at Chicago Ancestors, which calls it "1885 City Directory."

Illinois Harvest offers more formats for viewing the digital images than does Chicago Ancestors, but Chicago Ancestors kindly breaks its PDFs up by letter of the alphabet, so that searching doesn't take forever.

Genealogy at the Newberry Library in Chicago

Long a magnet for Midwestern genealogists, these days Chicago's Newberry Library also has a significant web presence. Its Chicago Ancestors site (blogged here) is unique AFAIK; most of the library's voluminous holdings are now catalogued on line; and the Local and Family History Department's Newberry Library Genealogy News is a uniquely useful source for upcoming meetings, library events, and research tips. On that same page you can scroll down for links to articles like Jack Simpson on the history of German street name changes in the Bucktown neighborhood and Grace Dumelle on Chicago school records.

Back in the physical world, the library will host two genealogy events open to the public this Saturday (2 Feb): Ginger Frere will give an introduction to genealogy at 9:30 am, and Jeanne Bloom will speak on "Genealogy and Writing" at the Chicago Genealogical Society meeting at 1:30 pm. (Future CGS meetings are here.)

Out-of-towners with plenty to read, and better things to do than try to drive and park in downtown Chicago, should know that the Newberry is a short bus ride (or a brisk 20-minute walk) north of the Loop commuter train stations, which come in from as far as Kenosha, South Bend, Joliet, and Aurora. Directions and links here.