(US-NYC) Brooklyn Public Library Digitizes 107 Years of City Directories and Telephone Books

[Jan Meisels Allen janmallen@att.net]

X-No-archive: yes
The Brooklyn (NY) Public Library has digitized 107 years of City Directories
and telephone directories ranging from 1856-1967. This is a great way to
check addresses, persons names, advertisements etc.
See: http://tinyurl.com/ndelcwe
Original url:
http://technical.ly/brooklyn/2015/07/14/brooklyn-public-library-puts-microfilm-directories-online/

To access the City Directories and Telephone Books see:
https://archive.org/details/brooklynpubliclibrary?&sort=titleSorter&page=2

The phone directories are being uploaded to Internet Archives a non-profit
San Francisco-based website. The Brooklyn Public Library is a library system
independent from New York Public and Queens Library in New York City.

Thank you to Barbara Algaze for informing us of this new genealogical aid.

Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
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[Allan Jordan aejordan@aol.com]

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From: Jan Meisels Allen

> The Brooklyn (NY) Public Library has digitized 107 years of City Directories
> and telephone directories ranging from 1856-1967.

What the article fails to explain is that there is a big gap in the surviving
(or produced) city directories for Brooklyn. If I remember correctly it is
1913 to 1933.

What the library has produced is phone directories for that time period which
is very nice but do not forget the average person did not have a telephone in
their home until at least the 1930s or 1940s. So do not be surprised if you are
looking in the early years and do not find the person listed. Telephone were
a luxury versus today where it seems some people can not survive without their
cell phone permanently attached so they can text non-stop. For a lot of our
relatives in those years "messaging" was hanging out the window or sitting on
the stoop and talking to people.

Allan Jordan

[Sherri Bobish sherribob@comcast.net]

X-No-archive: yes

Allan Jordan wrote:
"What the article fails to explain is that there is a big gap in the surviving
(or produced) city directories for Brooklyn. If I remember correctly it is
1913 to 1933."

Allan Jordan is correct about the gap in Brooklyn city directories.

In regards to telephone directories, telephones were starting to be found in
the average person's home in the 1920's, but a large percentage had to give
up that luxury in 1929.

After WWII when the soldiers were coming home there was a shortage of
available telephone lines. If a family could get a telephone line at all than
it would be a party line. For you youngsters, a party line is a telephone
number/line shared by more than one family. And, if you picked up your phone
you could listen to the other family's phone calls, and also had to wait for
them to finish talking before you could make your call.

The 1930's / 1940's version of voicemail in Brooklyn worked this way. When my
Mom received a call for her on the drug store's public telephone booth the
store owner would step outside & yell upstairs that Ruthie has a call.

Regards,

Sherri Bobish
Princeton, NJ

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