Great news! Over 210,000 CITY DIRECTORY records are available on Greek Ancestry!
What’s even better? The records are offered at DISCOUNT, for $4 only! Search now!
City Directories are broadly used in genealogy research internationally. Nonetheless, until today, their use in Greek genealogy has been minimal, perhaps even nonexistent. The reason has mainly been the lack of a systematic collection of such records, together with a consequent lack of digitization efforts. In the past few months, Greek Ancestry’s team worked methodically to overcome these barriers. Dozens of Greek city directories were collected, digitized and indexed for the first time ever! Today, we are very happy to announce that over 210,000 records are now available!
The collection includes records from all over Greece (with the exception of the Dodecanese islands) from 1901 to 1947. Athens, Patra, Piraeus and Thessaloniki are highly represented!
Greek city directory records, like all records of the kind, provide different information compared to other types of records, for instance, those falling under the “vital records” category. Beyond an individual’s given and last name, the directories include his/her occupation and address. Sometimes, a father’s initial is mentioned, as well! The value of such a record is threefold. First of all, it allows the researcher to locate a family or an individual in a particular place at a particular time when other records are unavailable. Secondly, it allows for a systematic “follow” of an individual’s or a family’s traces through time. Other types of records cannot advise as to people’s movement in space; but city directories literally are historical “snapshots,” showing who was where and when. Last but not least, a city directory record also brings context into research. You not only learn that your ancestor lived and worked in Athens, but also that he exercised a particular profession at a particular address. You can then imagine his neighborhood and everyday life. Start exploring now by clicking here!
