Indianapolis, Indiana Directories, 1887-90

Item

Title
Indianapolis, Indiana Directories, 1887-90
Indianapolis City Directory, 1887
Indianapolis City Directory, 1888
Indianapolis City Directory, 1889
Indianapolis City Directory, 1890
Creator
R.L Polk and Company (Indianapolis, IN)
Publisher
Ancestry.com Operations, Inc
Place
Provo, UT
Date
2000
Language
English
Temporal coverage
1887-1890
Description
From Ancestry.com, "The county seat of Marion County in central Indiana, Indianapolis was home to some 45,000 residents in 1890. This database is a transcription of four city directories originally published between 1887 and 1890. In addition to providing the residents' names, it provides their addresses and occupation. This collection includes the names of more than 180,344 people, mostly heads of household.

City directories are primarily useful for locating people in a particular place and time. They can tell you generally where an ancestor lived and give an exact location for census years. They are also useful for linkage with sources other than censuses.

There are usually several parts to a city directory. The section of most interest to the genealogist, of course, is the alphabetical listing of names, for it is there that you may find your ancestor.

Whenever you use a directory, however, it is important to refer to the page showing abbreviations used in the alphabetical section of the directory, usually following the name in each entry. Some abbreviations are quite common, such as h for home or r, indicating residence. There may even be a subtle distinction between r for residents who are related to the homeowner and b for boarders who are not related.

Some city directories list adult children who lived with their parents but were working or going to school. Look for persons of the same surname residing at the same address. If analyzed and interpreted properly, these annual directories can tell you (by implication) which children belong to which household, when they married and started families of their own, and when they established themselves in business. In cases where specific occupation is given, you can search records pertinent to that occupation.

Once an ancestor has been found in a city directory, there are several ways the information can be used to gain access to, or link with, such sources as censuses, death and probate records, church records, naturalization records, and land records.

Taken from Chapter 11: Research in Directories, The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy by Gordon Lewis Remington; edited by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1997)."
Accessed online at Ancestry.com

Linked resources

Items with "Source(s): Indianapolis, Indiana Directories, 1887-90"
Title Class
Tousey, Spencer Person