In my Catholic school in the 1960s we were taught that Mc_ before Ma… was the correct way to alphabetize surnames. Anyone go to secretarial school in the pre-computer age? Margaret > On Feb 18, 2016, at 5:56 PM, ny-irish-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > > Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2016 16:57:14 -0500 > From: mizscarlettny@aol.com > Subject: Re: [NY-IRISH] City Directories > To: ny-irish@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: <152f6631478-4780-bfa3@webprd-m63.mail.aol.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > > Great point, Virginia. > > To add to that, earlier entries for an individual were more likely to be misspelled than later ones. > I came to think that the Know Nothing haters were not accustomed to Irish surnames. For example, > my Daniel O'Connell was first listed as "Daniel O. Connell," as I found him buried in the "C" section. > [Back in Ireland all records are also "C."] > > Just imagine how we Irish fouled up directories with our Mc names. Take McNamara. It can > appear as M'Namara & Mc_Namara & McNamara & Mac- [space or no space]. Publishers > didn't know how to alphabetize us and sometimes Mc names appear before Ma- names. > > Residents paid to be listed in city directories, which may also account for absent names. During the 19c, > women were only listed if widows. When I was inexperienced with NYC directory listings, I was amazed > at the numbers of men who worked in "Laboratories," which is what I thought "Lab" represented. > Then, I searched the abbreviations listed in the beginning pages. > > In NYC, the annual directory came out on May 1st and ran through April 30th of the following year. > May 1st was the official moving day in early Manhattan. You can read about it in the preface > section. > > Trivia: Directories were published as hardcover books. I've used them in NYC & Westchester Co. > > > Barb > > MizScarlettNY@aol.com