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Discover why the new US City Directories collection on MyHeritage helps genealogists quickly find their families year-by-year. This collection has more than records—it's a technology revolutionizing genealogy research right now!
MyHeritage announced a revolutionary technology with its US City Directory collection. When I say revolutionary, I mean that not only do they give you hints about city directories and other collections that have your ancestors in them, but they actually find all of the city directory hints and put them together!
This video covers how to access the collection and a few speed bumps you'll run into along the journey. Don't worry; you can get over the speed bumps without spoiling the fun.
What are City Directories?
In the United States, cities and counties published directories for various reasons, but consider them an early salesman's tract book. As city directories evolved, they annually provided the names of adults in a specific area beside their residence and occupation. They might also record workplaces, businesses, and spouses.
Typically, 1835 marks the rise in the availability of such books, but some are available from the 1700s.
Next to census records, city directories are must-use resources for every beginning genealogist. They help them place their ancestors in a specific place and time in their family and community context.
What does the MyHeritage US City Directories Collection Contain?
At the launch of the new MyHeritage US City Directories collection, 1.3 billion records from 25,000 directories published in the United States between 1860 and 1960, Machine learning technology made the entire collection searchable, and links were found based on individual names and location addresses.
See how exciting MyHeritage City Directory research is!
How to Access MyHeritage City Directories
There are several ways to access the US City Direction collection. (Watch the
Video to see all of those ways).
Here is a direct link to the US City Directories Collection on MyHeritage.
You need at least a MyHeritage Data Plan to access this collection.
Search results for Gertrude Rang in MyHeritage US City Directory Collection
What You’ll Find As You Research MyHeritage City Directories
As you search for a relative, you’ll receive a number of hints.
Once you find a record that looks like it applies to your ancestor, click on the link to see this reference page. You’ll see:
a thumbnail for the city directory
Information extracted from one record
a list of additional city directories that likely relate to your ancestor
That list of likely additional records is revolutionary.
First, these additional hints strongly correlate with your ancestors based on their names, identified spouses (if applicable), and residence.
Secondly, you can flip through these additional city directories from this entry point.
Thirdly, if you accept this recommendation from MyHeritage, you can save ALL of the city directories to your tree AT THE SAME TIME. (This is an incredible time-saver. I know because I’ve researched my ancestors in city directories on Ancestry, and you can NOT go through this quickly.
Notice the additional records (1908 and 1909) and the “See who else lives here” link
that you can access from one record profile
MyHeritage City Directory Super Easy Address Search
After you search for a specific individual, MyHeritage makes searching based on an address incredibly quick and easy.
Click on the "See who else lived at this address" link, and MyHeritage will return results across all of its directories for that address in that city.
I can't even begin to tell you how time-consuming this task is without this technology. Suddenly, an 'advanced' city directory research technique is accessible to beginners.
By researching ‘who else lived at this address,’ you may find:
female ancestors who had seemed to go missing after the married
additional adult relatives, even if their surnames are different
the house history, which may help you locate land and ownership records (and thus potentially additional relatives)
That's just the start! Searching by one address opens up an entire possibility for genealogy discoveries. Thanks to this one-click search technology, who knows what brick walls you'll bust.
↪️ Are you looking for more genealogy resources?
Grab your copy of these FREE Genealogy Research Guides.
Speed Bumps in the MyHeritage City Directories
Several things in the MyHeritage City Directory collection can slow down your research. Learn what they are and how to proceed safely.
OCR Misreads
OCR technology continues to improve, but it is not infallible. As such, you'll encounter several misread entries.
MyHeritage allows you to correct a person's name if there is a transcription error.
If any other details are inaccurate, you currently can not fix those mistakes.
If an OCR scan combines two people into one entry (common with 'Ditto' mark surnames)
You can't add a new entry to MyHeritage
Save a link to the City Directory manually to the second person's profile.
Save the combined entry to the individual listed in the searchable field.
Ancestor’s With Inconsistent Names
MyHeritage's automatic record consolidation technology is fantastic but not foolproof. It may not recognize that spelling and name usage variations refer to the same individual.
Let’s say you have an ancestor that appears with the following names:
Aleta N Geiszler
Aleta B Geiszler
Aleta M Geiszler
Aleta Geiszler
Aleta Giesler
MyHeritage can not combine these entries into one. They also recommend that you don't change the transcription to another name. The record is correct.
Instead, save all of these variations to your ancestor's profile. (You should also search for all the variations to trace your ancestor.)
MyHeritage’s US City Directories Are Addictive
Be warned: The speed with which MyHeritage finds US City Directories for your ancestors in publications not found on other websites can consume all of your time. Don't begin searching this collection unless you are prepared to lose several hours (or a weekend) of your time.
City directories can help you trace the daily details about your ancestors and uncover hidden stories available for serious researchers. These records are no longer too hard for beginning genealogists to access.
Go enjoy the collection on MyHeritage!
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Continue Learning About City Directories or MyHeritage
The following blog posts and videos can help you continue your quest to learn about city directories or resources available from MyHeritage.