Are the Birmingham directories the original clothbound books? Reason I ask is that I just returned from a genealogy trip to Illinois and I was in the Joliet Public Library in Joliet, Will County, IL and they have just shelves and shelves of Joliet directories going back to the late 1800s and going all the way up to modern times. I almost thought I had died and gone to heaven. I've never used the directories on hand like that. Only seen a few copied pages. I could spend two weeks alone in that library with those directories (about all the library had in the way of books for my particular research (Italian)) and still probably have more research to do. A distant cousin was with me and she showed me how to use the directories. My advice is to first look at all sections of the directory including the front page to get a feel for it. Look at the list of abbreviations so you understand what they mean. She also showed me that once you find your people in the directory itself - to look in the back where it's listed by street names. Find that address in numerical order and see what buildings it was near or sometimes what building it actually was. For instance, I found that my people lived in a hotel. If the directory lists their business address or employer, you can look for that as well. Most of them didn't own a vehicle in the past and therefore would most likely have walked to work. Does anyone know what areas the Birmingham directories cover? Just the city itself? Any of the outlying areas? Like New Castle or Pinson area? Barry Jernigan Murfreesboro, TN

Barry, I will try to answer your questions about the Birmingham City Directories. I have used several of them from time to time. <<<Are the Birmingham directories the original clothbound books? >>>> Yes, they are the original clothbound books. Both the Birmingham and Wallace College libraries have a collection of these directories. Both libraries have a few missing volumes, so you might want to check both libraries for various years. <<<<Does anyone know what areas the Birmingham directories cover? Just the city itself? Any of the outlying areas? Like New Castle or Pinson area?>>>> This varies from year to year. Some of the directories cover more areas than others. Some have outlying areas included in the lists of residents. I found some which had a separate section with Post Offices listed from towns all over North Alabama, with mail receivers listed by occupation [merchants, doctors, farmers, etc.]. Quite a number of them have the address listings by street and avenues, as you mentioned, where one could see the neighbors, etc. listed together. This is helpful to determine if relatives lived nearby. I looked in the online card catalog for Birmingham Public Library. They have only a few listed that I could find using various search words. I am not sure why they don't have all of them [several rows of shelves full] listed [or, maybe I just haven't discovered the "right" search words!!] They have 22 reels of microfilm of Birmingham City Directories. Call number for them is "Micro- film F 334 .B653 D5" They are part of a series, "City Directories of the United States" I also could not find the books listed in Wallace College Library's online Catalog. But I did find that Wallace also has the 22 reels of microfilm. [But I know that they have several shelves full of bound Birmingham directories!] Hope this helps, Melba Clark ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 7:59 AM Subject: Re: [ALJEFFER] Bham Directories (was "Cath Baptism") > Are the Birmingham directories the original clothbound books? Reason I ask > is > that I just returned from a genealogy trip to Illinois and I was in the > Joliet Public Library in Joliet, Will County, IL and they have just > shelves and > shelves of Joliet directories going back to the late 1800s and going all > the way > up to modern times. > > I almost thought I had died and gone to heaven. I've never used the > directories on hand like that. Only seen a few copied pages. I could spend > two weeks > alone in that library with those directories (about all the library had in > the > way of books for my particular research (Italian)) and still probably have > more > research to do. > > A distant cousin was with me and she showed me how to use the directories. > My > advice is to first look at all sections of the directory including the > front > page to get a feel for it. Look at the list of abbreviations so you > understand > what they mean. She also showed me that once you find your people in the > directory itself - to look in the back where it's listed by street names. > Find > that address in numerical order and see what buildings it was near or > sometimes > what building it actually was. For instance, I found that my people lived > in a > hotel. If the directory lists their business address or employer, you can > look > for that as well. Most of them didn't own a vehicle in the past and > therefore > would most likely have walked to work. > > Does anyone know what areas the Birmingham directories cover? Just the > city > itself? Any of the outlying areas? Like New Castle or Pinson area? > > Barry Jernigan > Murfreesboro, TN