Local History: City Directories

One of the most useful resources for researching family history or the past residents of a property are annual city directories. Published from the nineteenth century up to the early 1980s, they list who lived at a certain address and often noted their occupation as well. Businesses could also be included, usually alphabetically and by industry; many took out advertisements as well. To save time, the San Francisco Genealogy Society has produced a page with links by year.