Hi, I really appreciate the help that I am getting from this list. I thought that I should give back by giving you an URL. When trying to find information on my grandfather and father in San Francisco I could not find much. Most of the records burned in the 1906 earthquake. The only place that I could find city directories was in Boston and Provo, Utah. It would have cost several hundred dollars to send for those records. Then someone clued me in that evendon were putting the SF directories on line just at the time I was looking. They had quite an extensive collection for SF and I got all of the ones that I needed at no cost Google www.evendon.net There are several collections there. The city directories came up on .com. Others topics came up on .net. Unfortunately there are not many for NYC but there are a few. You may have other ancestors who were in a different place for which they have more information. Good luck Velma