Not sure about one in our time line but in the late 19th century/early 20th, there was one a year in the Cleveland, OH area. Assume that most large cities had the same or similar time line in the USA. Ours listed the person, street address and occupation. Many times the surname was misspelled probably D/T illiteracy but still it assists one in tracking their ancestors and their families if they remained in the same area. Example: my g grandfather's name was misspelled but seeing the spelling it assisted me in using the census, the railroad records, death records, naturalization for him and various other family members. I imagine it would also assist with passenger lists if there were various spelling of the surname and even forms of the given name. Mary Ellen Chambers Lakewood, Oh louann creasy <jcreasy@cfl.rr.com> wrote: I see people talking about using city directories in your research. Why are they so important? And how do you find them? Thanks for any comments. Louann Kiddy Creasy ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MDALLEGA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message