How to: Use City Directories
City Directories are a valuable resource for genealogy and property research. City Archives & Special Collections holds a collection of City Directories for New Orleans covering over 200 years! Use this post to learn more about how to access directories, what information may be contained in them, and how to use Criss-Cross Directories.
Who uses City Directories for research?
- Property researchers may consult directories to learn more about who lived at an address, when they lived there, or what the property was used for. The street guides can also be useful for tracking changes in street names and numbers over time.
- Genealogists may use directories to look for marital status, professions, and residential or work addresses of individuals.
Please note that there are not directories available for every year, and there were no City Directories published during the Civil War (1862-1865). For more detailed descriptions of our holdings please view the City Directories page in our Property Research and Genealogy Guides.
Access
Analog Access – Print and Microform Directories
What’s available?
Printed versions of New Orleans City Directories from 1961 – present are available to browse. New Orleans City Directories from 1811-1960 are available on microform. Again, there are not directories available for every year. There are also a limited number of directories from other cities in Louisiana. Please consult with a staff member for information on out-of-parish directories.
How to access them?
To view these records please schedule an appointment.
Digital Access – Digitized Directories
Digital, text-searchable copies of New Orleans City Directories are available in 2 different ways: remotely with a New Orleans Public Library Card, and in-person at a New Orleans Public Library Branch either on one of the Library’s computers or while connected to the Library’s wi-fi. HeritageQuest, and Gale’s City and Business Directories can be accessed remotely or in a Library; Ancestry.com can only be accessed in the Library.
Don’t have a Library Card? Visit any New Orleans Public Library branch to access these databases.
Digital city directories are available from 1805-1960. Again, there are not directories available for every year.
Remote Access
What’s available?
Gale’s City and Business Directories offers access to New Orleans City Directories from 1805-1929. There are also a handful of directories from other cities such as Baton Rouge and Shreveport.
HeritageQuest offers access to New Orleans City Directories from 1861-1960.
How to access directories on Gale’s City and Business Directories?
- Go to the Library’s website: nolalibrary.org
- Select Research & Learn from the menu at the top of the page
- Select Databases, this will take you to Louisiana Library Connection: https://lalibcon.state.lib.la.us/ (If accessing this database remotely you will need to enter your Library Card number on this page.)
- Look on the left-hand side of the page and select Gale’s City & Business Directories
- Select American Studies
- Select City & Business Directories: Louisiana, 1805-1929
- From here you can either use the center search bar to search for your subject within all of the directories
- Or you can select View all items in this collection to browse the directories and select one to view
- Once you open a directory you can search for specific words in the text, or browse the directory
How to access directories on HeritageQuest?
- Go to the Library’s website: nolalibrary.org
- Select Research & Learn from the menu at the top of the page
- Select Databases, this will take you to Louisiana Library Connection: https://lalibcon.state.lib.la.us/ (If accessing this database remotely you will need to enter your Library Card number on this page.)
- Look on the left-hand side of the page and select HeritageQuest Online
- Scroll down to the Explore our Collections section
- Select Search Now under Search City Directories
- Use the search tool near the middle of the page to search for a specific person, business, or location
On-Site Access
What’s available?
Ancestry offers access to New Orleans City Directories from 1861-1960. They also offer access to a variety of City Directories from around the world, with different dates available from different locations. The New Orleans City Directories are part of a larger database of City Directories from across the United States.
How to access directories on Ancestry?
Researchers using New Orleans Public Library computers or connected to the Library’s wi-fi have free access to Ancestry Library Edition.
- Go to the Library’s website: nolalibrary.org
- Select Research & Learn from the menu at the top of the page
- Select Databases, this will take you to Louisiana Library Connection: https://lalibcon.state.lib.la.us/
- Look on the left-hand side of the page and select Ancestry Library Edition
- At the top of the page select Search
- On the drop-down menu select Card Catalog
- Type U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 in the search bar in the upper left-hand corner of the page
- Select U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 from the center of the page
- Use the options on the right-hand side of the page to Browse this Collection by selecting the Louisiana as the State, New Orleans as the City, and the year of interest from 1861-1960
- Or use the search tool near the middle of the page to search for a specific person, business, or location
Researcher Hint: If a keyword search is not returning relevant results, try browsing the directory or use an alternate spelling.
Contents of City Directories
The content of City Directories changed over time, and gradually became more and more robust. Earlier directories did not capture as much information about as many residents and businesses as later directories did. Earlier directories were also published more sporadically than later editions.
Names and Addresses
The most common feature of the City Directory is an alphabetical listing of names of people and businesses with their corresponding addresses. Many directories will also include the profession of the individual, and the marital status of women who are included.
Businesses
Today these are referred to as the yellow pages: advertisements for goods and services grouped into alphabetical categories. Figuring out exactly what the name of the category is may require experimentation, but once you figure it out, the category is usually good for several years.
See the entry for H.G. Hodgson in the Cohen’s New Orleans Directory for 1855. He is a clerk working at 36 Gravier Street who dwells at 107 Constance Street.
Advertisements could also be mixed in with the residential listings.
Researcher Hint: Some earlier directories might be divided into several parts with the same type of information, for example, the entries for a given municipality may be listed separately from the other municipalities. More recent directories separate the City of New Orleans from the Greater New Orleans Area into two separate volumes.
Abbreviations
The abbreviation guide at the start of each section is essential for making full use of the directories. Take this entry for “Benj H (Annie C) genl supt NO Pub Serv h4604 S Derbigny.”
Benjamin H Bell lives with his wife, Annie C. He is the general Superintendent of New Orleans Public Service Co Inc. He is the head of his household, and lives at 4604 South Derbigny Street.
Looking further down the page see “Bernice W (wid Lincoln) r2745 Toulouse.”
Bernice W Bell is widow of Lincoln Bell. She lives at 2745 Toulouse Street, but is not the head of the household.
Government Services and Social Organizations
Like businesses these are often grouped into alphabetical categories and provide names and locations of government offices, social services, and mixed public/private entities. For example, listings of cemeteries or hospitals could contain a mix of public, religious, and private operators.
Researcher Hint: The order of contents in a directory may vary, so browsing may be required to locate the section of interest.
Researcher Hint: The older the directory is, the more likely it is to describe an intersection or portion of a block rather than a numbered address.
Street Indexes
Many City Directories list the streets, and below each street entry is a listing of the cross streets and the number at which they start. This can be a useful tool for researchers wishing to orient themselves within the city, or for figuring out where a particular address used to be located.
Street Name and Number Changes
Indexes for Street Name and Street Numbering changes from 1852-1938.
Name ChangesNumber Changes
Criss-cross Directories
Criss-cross directories first appear in 1932 as a section within the New Orleans City Directory. Traditional directories are sorted by last name or business name, but criss-cross directories are also sorted by address, and by the 1970s by phone number as well.
Researcher Hint: You may be able to search city directories by address before 1932 if they have been digitized.
Just because a directory contains a name, phone number, and address, doesn’t mean that all three pieces of information are stored together. Check out this example from the 1971 Polk City Directory looking at the New Orleans Public Library to see what information can be extracted from which section, and how they work together to give you a fuller picture of the organization.
The Name section lists the Public Library and the locations of its branches along with their phone numbers under the larger heading: New Orleans – City Of. However, if you look to the right at New Orleans Cuisine Inc and New Orleans Cultural Center Commission there are no phone numbers listed.
The Address section lists 219 for Pub Library and a phone number under the heading: Loyola Ave.
The Phone section lists 4602 Pub Library under the heading: 523.
City Directories can be valuable tools for conducting genealogical and property research. They provide insights into who lived where when, and what business and organizations operated where over time. As with all research, a negative search result does not prove that a person did not live here at the time in question, and we generally recommend at least two pieces of corroborating evidence for any research claims. Additional information about conducting genealogy and property research is availabe in the guides linked below.