Search results for "directories"

Back in December 2010, we talked about digitization of San Diego Directories from the San Diego Public Library. One glitch in the link above is that most of the directories are not dated on the website. I’ve listed these directories below. Just find the year you need and click on the corresponding title. I hope that will make it a bit easier.

1887- 88 Maxwell’s Directory of San Diego City and County for 1887-88

1889-90  Monteith’s Directory of San Diego and Vicinity for 1889-90

1892  Directory of San Diego City, Coronado and National City

1893-94 Directory of San Diego City and County for 1893-94

1895 San Diego City and County Directory 1895

1897 San Diego City and County Directory

1899-1900 San Diego City and County Directory 1899-1900

1901 San Diego City and County Directory

1903 San Diego City and County Directory

1904 San Diego City and County Directory

1905 San Diego City and County Directory

1906 San Diego City and County Directory

1907 San Diego City and County Directory

1908 San Diego City and County Directory

1909 San Diego City and County Directory

1910 San Diego City and County Directory

1911 San Diego City and County Directory

1912  San Diego City and County Directory

1913 San Diego City and County Directory

1914 San Diego City and County Directory

1915 San Diego City and County Directory

1916 San Diego City and County Directory

1917 San Diego City and County Directory

1918 San Diego City and County Directory

1919 San Diego City and County Directory

1920 San Diego City and County Directory

1921 San Diego City and County Directory

1922 San Diego City and County Directory

1923 San Diego City and County Directory

1924 San Diego City and County Directory

1925 San Diego City and County Directory

Last May I wrote a post on City Directories: their value to historical researchers and the need for digitization. These books list personal and business names, addresses, and occupations for most of San Diego County. Now some great news to report. Nearly 40 years of San Diego directories are available online from the Internet Archive.

Several months ago, the Special Collections department of the San Diego Public Library accepted an incredible offer from the Balboa Park Online Collaborative to have these important volumes digitized. The years from 1887 to 1925 were scanned, page by page through the services of the BPOC. Volumes once available only in the California Room at the downtown library, can now be viewed and searched online, or downloaded in a variety of formats.

Click here for San Diego Directories.

Probably the easiest way to use the directories is to read them online. You can flip through the pages or do a search by name. One problem, unfortunately, is that the directory titles don’t always show the year. So here’s a hint. If you look on the right side of the search results you’ll see “sort results by.” Click on “Date” and the volumes will be sorted by year.

If you don’t want to rely on your Internet connection you can also download the entire volumes in pdf, full-text, or other formats. You can even download the directories to a Kindle.

Monday through Friday my “real” job is watching over the California Room at San Diego’s downtown Central Library.  Among many collections of note here are the business directories, dating from the late 1880s all the way up to 1984.  Researchers have long appreciated the historical value of these thick volumes—often known as the “Polk Directories”–which list personal and business names, addresses, and occupations for most of San Diego County.  They are invaluable for studying local family or business history, and they are used heavily.

The popularity of our Polks has been a bit of a problem.  Paper and bindings wear out, of course, and we have had to pull a few of our more popular volumes just to prevent their total destruction.  But a solution has appeared.

In the last two months the library has been working with the San Diego Genealogical Society to digitize the directories.  The Genealogical Society’s R. J. Christensen has personally scanned over thirty of our earliest books, ensuring the preservation of the images.  The next step is to index the pdf files, which will give us quick name access to online copies of the directories.  The Society is now working with Ancestry.com to make this last important step possible.  Stay tuned . . .

–Rick

Here’s a list that will always be a work in progress.  The sites below are the ones I currently find the most useful.

• San Diego Genealogical Society
• San Diego Historical Society (aka “The History Center”)
• San Diego Public Library Digital Library
• Save Our Heritage Organisation
• Online Archive of California
• Kumeyaay Mapping Project
• Balboa Park Online Collaborative
• San Diego Maritime Museum
• San Diego Historical City Directories