Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Tuesday's Tip ~ Pittsburgh City Directories

Historical City Directories can be useful in family history research and I enjoy browsing them. Different city directories are found at different websites.

For the city of Pittsburgh (and its North Side, formerly Allegheny City), historical City Directories can be found at a website offered by the University of Pittsburgh at Historic Pittsburgh.



I haven't fully explored this site, but you can find a range of dates of historic Pittsburgh City Directories at Historic Pittsburgh City Directories.

I used these directories to narrow down the date of death of one of my 3rd great grandfathers, James Freeland. In the Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities 1861-1862, James Freeland, plumber, is at the corner of Beaver and Geyer's [Avenue?] in Allegheny:


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In Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities 1862-1863, James Freeland is at 29 Ohio, with his home at 187 Beaver in Allegheny:


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In Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny cities 1863/1864, Nancy Freeland is listed as the widow of James, at the address of 187 Beaver, in Allegheny:


This narrows down James Freeland's date of death to sometime in 1863. There were a couple of James Freelands from Pennsylvania who served in the Civil War, but I have yet to determine if one of them is my 3rd great-grandfather.

As I noted in yesterday's post about his wife, Nancy (Rainey) Freeland, I also used this same method to determine the year of her death as 1903.

5 comments:

  1. I LOVE City Directories. I have learned so much about my great-grandfather Brown. Now... to explore the rest of the tree.

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    1. You've been reading my blog long enough to know how much I love City Directories, too. It is so easy to get distracted while browsing through them once you find them for the community you're researching! Thanks for the comment.

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    2. I also like city directories--as well as old telephone books. They are such a rich source of information.

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  2. The north side of Pittsburgh is just what I need! Thanks for this post!

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    1. Marian, so glad I could be of help! Be sure to leave yourself lots of time to browse through this substantial collection of city directories for Pittsburgh! Thanks for reading and commenting.

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