Shelia: I'm looking for Enos Cloud who, according to the census records, lived in Caldwell for over ten years, was a justice of the peace and something called a 'police court judge' which I imagine is the same thing. When I contacted the historical society they checked their records and responded that he was not on their justice of the peace list and he isn't listed as resident in the local cemetery. So now I'm beginning to wonder what became of him and thought a city listing would be a good starting place until I can get better access to the old city records. LC In a message dated 4/25/2012 3:23:26 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, [email protected] writes: I was using Ancestry.com when looking for the two guys who turned out to be one...there are tons of entries for city directories. If you don't have access to Ancestry maybe you could contact the library in Caldwell, KS or the local genealogy society for help?? Good Luck in your searches, just be aware of similar name entries! Sheila -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 2:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [NORCAL] City Directories I'm wondering how to connect into a web site that has city directories. Specifically I'm looking for information in Caldwell, Kansas. Can you offer any suggestions or links that could help? Larry C -----Original Message----- From: Sheila Ruiz Harrell <[email protected]> To: norcal <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, Apr 25, 2012 10:20 am Subject: [NORCAL] City Directories I read your comment about using the city directories and I thought I'd share my ecent experience with city directories. A cousin, now deceased, did extensive work on the family and shared all her apers with her daughters and various other family members. She did a wonderful ob, a few dates a bit off but for the most part we use her work as the guide to inding supporting documents. She listed the names of her uncles, her father's rothers and their birth/death dates. While using her work I found that her randfather had also listed his children when he was in the Home for Disabled olunteer Soldiers in Sawtelle, Los Angeles, CA. His list of his sons was just a it different than the list my cousin prepared of her father and his brothers. started digging and was so excited to find them in the city directories! I new the first and third brothers died in 1918 so I followed two other brothers n the city directories from 1920 in San Francisco all the way through 1952 in an Mateo. These men were in the dry cleaning business so that helped, seeing he same occupation each time I found them. o far so good...two brothers, one named Vincent, or Jos.V, or JV, and his wife as Dolores. The other brother was Rey/Ray and his wife was listed as Laura. The wo were listed in the same directories, usually one below the other, both as in he cleaning business, for the same company. One listed with an address with the etter "h" that I thought indicated his home, and the other with the letter "r" hich I thought meant renter. But ya know what? There was only ONE guy...not wo! Joseph Vincent often went by the family nickname he was given as "Rey" and his ife was Maria Dolores who often used a nickname of Laura, probably Lora but ritten as Laura. So for all the entries in the city directories listing two men nd two different wives' names...there was only one person. The original papers had listed this guy as John. His father listed him as Benson which was what he person wrote as they heard a heavy Spanish accent saying Vincent. Luckily he address for Benson matched an address for Jos.V in the city directory. His WI Draft info listed him as Joseph Vincent and his wife was "Mary D". I had oped a death record might solve the mystery but he's listed as Joseph R! So my point here is don't give up on finding your guy in the city irectory...even though there are several with the same name, and the same pouse's name...it could be the same person. My guess is that the info was ollected by several people and just added together causing the rest of us to go uts years later! ood Luck, heila ... who spent nearly a week tracking two, when there was only one! -----Original Message----- rom: "Paul Puente" <[email protected]> o: [email protected] ent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 2:56:12 AM ubject: Re: [NORCAL] George Thomas b. 1887 California Eugene - I use city directories extensively and that's how I tracked my George homas up until he disappeared in 1917. But Thomas is such a common surname and ithout his wife's name and occupation to work with I lost the trail. At one oint in San Francisco there were 3 George H. Thomas with spouses named lizabeth. I could keep them separated but then my George disappeared. By the ay do you or anyone else know how city directories are or were actually ompiled? I guess they would have to survey people in some way to obtain not nly their address but also their occupations, spouse name, etc. ----------------------------------------- NORCAL ARCHIVES: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ Enter NORCAL. Browse by month. Or click the "Search all archives" link to search by keyword. ----------------------------------------- To post a message to the NORCAL mailing list, send an email to [email protected] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message