Are you using City Directories?

City Directories are one of those genealogy resources that you either absolutely love or you don't know about.

Using City Directories, you can find the location of your ancestors homes, their occupations, place of work and spouse's name year after year.

There is an excellent article on City Directories by Kory Meyerink here. It presents historical data and describes where to find the City Directories online or in repositories. It also provides links to other articles available on the web.

I have traced all of my San Diego families in the SD City Directories. The SD Public library and National City library have the most complete collections in the area. Chula Vista library and the SD FHC have smaller collections.

Recently, I was able to help a correspondent puzzle out where her ancestral home was moved from. It was at one address in one year, then at another address on the same street in a later year. Using the street index for the two years and the known addresses, I figured out where the house was originally built and moved from.

If ancestral your families lived in cities, then you should be able to trace them in City Directories.