This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/AFB.2ACI/4734.2.1.1 Message Board Post: There are different directories at any given time. The Woods, at least, (I am in no way an expert here) have both professional and residential. The residential can be spotty--listing was voluntary, and not all people chose to participate. You may find someone one year and not the next. There were a variety of reasons for this--fear of conscription during the Civil War, fear of taxation, whatever--like they didn't find you! The directories, however, are a marvelous source for showing mobility, exact address, and , in 1890, a substitute for the census. The archives is the best on-line source that i have found, but they are not complete. If in Maryland, the Enoch Pratt, the Maryland Hidtorical Society, and the Towson branch of the Baltimore County Library all have microfilm.