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I received the following e-mail from an Ancestry Weekly Discovery reader and since the answer could be useful to many of you, I thought I’d answer it here.

I have done extensive New York City directory research. Sometimes addresses appear with an h. for house, particularly if the person also has a business address.  But sometimes there will be someone listed at the same exact address, but with no h. so I don’t know if I should assume it is the residence or whether there is a business there also.  Can you offer advice?

Thanks,
Phyllis

The presence or absence of an “h” for house or home in city directories can sometimes be misleading. The information and format often varied from publisher to publisher and from year to year. While some books clearly explain the use of abbreviations in the introductory pages, others make it necessary to study a few pages of address entries until a pattern emerges.

It also helps to keep the publisher’s motives for printing a directory in mind. In almost every case the primary reason for the printing of the book was not just to list the names and addresses of local residents, but to sell advertising.

It’s possible that there were multiple residences in the dwelling, but urban families often lived over a storefront or a shop. It can be helpful to look at the occupation of the individual in question. If that person was some type of shopkeeper for example, it is quite possible that the family lived in the same building.

For example, there are three listings of grocers with the surname Behnken  in the 1881 Brooklyn City Directory, none of which include the h. abbreviation.

By locating these gentlemen in the 1880 census, we can see that despite the lack of that h. annotation, the address in the directory is the same address given in the 1880 census where they are living with their families. (Click here to see John’s entry.)  Also look at state censuses and other records that include an address for clues as to whether an address was a residence, business, or both.

Tips:

• When you’re trying to match an address with a census year, the directory for the year following the census year will likely be your best bet. Directories typically ended on May 1st because that was considered “Moving Day” in many cities. Information gathered during the latter part of the census year, would be included in the following year’s edition. More information on “Moving Day” can be found in this New York Herald article from 30 April 1869.

• If your ancestor advertised his or her business in the city directory, you may find it listed in an index of advertisers like this one. The advertisement may give additional information as to whether the address refers to a business, residence or both. In the case of James Morrison, “housemover,” the ad for his company below gives the additional information that this is a “Yard and Residence.”

• Because the format and abbreviations used may have varied depending on the directory publisher, browse to the introductory materials that are typically found at the very beginning of the directory and look for abbreviations used (usually found just before the residential listings) to learn more about the directory you are using.

Schools have started up for another year, and it might be wise for the upperclassmen to start thinking about their projects for the coming year.

A NEW database for Irish genealogy and research was yesterday released online by the National Library of Ireland.

Looking for information on children of Rev. Thomas Dell pastor of Saint Mary's White Church in Dorchester County Md.

Huky Brown born around 1770 in Va? Lived in Ga in 1800 or so until 1810 Lived Lauderdale co, Ala from about 1820 until 1827 Lived Fayette Co, Tenn 1827 until 1836? Anyone kin to him? Robert Brown born around 1790 Where? Lived in Giles Co, Tenn 1812 Married Nancy Hayes 1820 Lauderdale Co, Alabama 1820 - 1827 Died Fayette Co, Tenn 1833 Anyone? Cross ...

More data collections launched with the enhanced image page

We launched more data collections in the new enhanced image viewer yesterday. Here is the list of data collections that are currently available in the new format:

• 1871 Census of Canada
• 1870 United States Federal Census
• 1871 Wales Census
• 1871 England Census
• 1871 Isle of Man Census
• 1871 Channel Islands Census
• 1860 United States Federal Census
• 1861 Channel Islands Census
• 1861 Isle of Man Census
• 1861 England Census
• 1861 Wales Census
• 1861 Census of Canada
• 1891 England Census
• U.K. Census Free Sample
• 1891 Channel Islands Census
• 1891 Wales Census
• 1891 Isle of Man Census
• 1881 England Census
• 1901 England Census
• 1901 Wales Census
• 1901 Channel Islands Census
• 1901 Isle of Man Census
• 1881 Wales Census
• 1881 Isle of Man Census
• 1881 Channel Islands Census
• 1851 England Census
• 1851 Wales Census
• 1851 Channel Islands Census
• 1851 Isle of Man Census
• 1841 England Census
• 1841 Wales Census
• 1841 Channel Islands Census
• 1841 Isle of Man Census
• 1790 United States Federal Census
• 1800 United States Federal Census
• 1810 United States Federal Census
• 1820 United States Federal Census
• 1830 United States Federal Census
• 1840 United States Federal Census
• 1850 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules
• 1850 United States Federal Census
• 1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia
• 1860 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules
• 1880 United States Federal Census
• 1890 United States Federal Census Fragment
• 1890 Veterans Schedules
• 1891 Census of Canada
• 1901 Census of Canada
• 1906 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta
• 1911 Census of Canada
• 1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta
• Australian Electoral Rolls, 1901-1936
• Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834
• Florida State Census, 1867-1945
• 1828 New South Wales, Australia Census (TNA Copy)
• U.S. Indian Census Schedules, 1885-1940
• U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918
• Kansas State Census Collection, 1855-1925
• Minnesota Territorial and State Censuses, 1849-1905
• New Jersey State Census, 1895
• U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1880
• Wisconsin State Censuses, 1895 and 1905

We will launch the 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 US Federal Census in the enhanced image page sometime on Friday.

Printing in IE and Vista

The enhanced image viewer, which is the activex controller that displays your image in both the original image page and the enhanced version, is not allowed to print on Vista unless you do some configuration stuff. This problem has existed for awhile and we are testing some ways to set this up so you can print current view with as easily as possibly. Until then, and it should be soon, you can use Firefox if you want to print selected portions.

Happy Searching!

Does anyone know the origin or meaning of the DILBA surname? It is extremely difficult to find information on this surname.

Ancestry.com is excited to provide attendees of the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ family history conference (September 2-5 in Little Rock, Arkansas) the opportunity to have their family records scanned, for free, on high–speed scanners.

We are bringing two scanners to the conference, and attendees can sign up for up to 15-min sessions to have their family history documents and photographs scanned and saved to a flash drive (provided by Ancestry.com).

Will you be at the FGS conference and bring items to scan? If so, let us know by pre-registering for the scanners using the following link:  http://FGSscanners.eventbrite.com

Details about Scanning

• Ancestry.com imaging specialists will operate the scanners
• Ancestry.com is bringing two scanners to the conference: a high–speed, loose–leaf scanner that will scan documents and photographs in full color and a planetary scanner for books and more fragile items
• Attendees will be able to scan about 100 family photographs or documents during a 15–minute session
• Scanned images will be saved to flash drives (provided at no cost by Ancestry.com) and given to attendees. (Note: Scanned images will NOT be uploaded to the Ancestry.com website by Ancestry.com personnel.)
• Due to anticipated demand, conference attendees will be able to sign up for only one scanning session during the conference

It turns out the trend of keeping baby names ‘all in the family’ is more popular than you might think. We were curious to see how many parents turned to their family tree for inspiration when choosing a baby name, so we conducted an independent survey to find out. Check out what we learned:

• Nearly half of all Americans were named after a family member.
• Of those, approximately one-third were named after their father, around 17 percent were named after their grandfather, and an estimated 15 percent were named for their grandmother.
• More men than women were named after a family member.
• In fact, 20 percent of men were given both their first and middle names after a family member.

We also looked to the family trees of some of America’s hottest celebrities to see the baby-naming patterns they had adopted.

Last Names as First Names

• Reese Witherspoon, born Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon, was given the name Reese after the last name of her mother’s ancestors. Her grandfather, Emmett Reese, and his parents BJ and Elizabeth Reese, are found in the 1920 Census.

 I am Henry the Eighth I Am

• Tom Cruise, or Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, comes from a long line of Thomases as witnessed in the 1930 Census, which shows his great-grandfather Thomas C. Mapother Sr. working as a lawyer in a circuit court.

 Mixing it Up: A French Spin on a Family Name

• Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt looked to their family trees for inspiration when naming the twins Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline. Marcheline is actually the French-sounding name of Angelina’s late mother.

For more interesting baby-naming stats and celebrity factoids, check out our news release.

I posted yesterday about how we were going to perform some site maintenance on Thursday morning at 1am MDT.  We have postponed this planned site maintenance until next Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 1am MDT.  We apologize if this change causes you any inconvenience.

The Ancestry.com site (and its related Ancestry international sites) will undergo scheduled maintenance on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 starting at 1am Mountain Time (7am GMT).  We expect Ancestry.com and its related international sites to be down for about 3 hours.  During this same period, portions of the Rootsweb.com, Genealogy.com, MyFamily.com & familytreemaker.com sites will also be unavailable.  Thanks for your patience as we improve our infrastructure to keep our sites running smoothly.