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A Look at "The Book": The Fall and Rise of the Telephone Directory
It can't have escaped your attention that there has been a lot of talk recently about the imminent demise of the book, at least the print version. But what about the book? Both the New York Times and...
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Maury and the Menu: A Brief History of the Cunard Steamship Company
In 1907 the Cunard Steamship Company launched the first of their Express Liners, the Lusitania and the Mauretania, ships that become bywords for speed, luxury and elegance in transatlantic travel. They...
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New York City Land Conveyances 1654-1851: What They Are and How They Work
On microfilm, in olde worlde language, in undecipherable hand writing. Who cares? This is digitized, right? Yes, sometimes, often, and not yet. Being a librarian, I spend a lot of time rummaging...
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Who Lived In a House Like This? A Brief Guide to Researching the History of...
The Library's Milstein Division is home to one of the largest free United States history, local history, and genealogy collections in the country, and many of our patrons are writing their family...
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1940: What's Going On
Released April 2, 2012 by the National Archives, the Sixteenth United States Federal Census is an exciting and important document. It describes the lives of Americans caught between two cataclysmic...
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The Woolworth Building: The Cathedral of Commerce
April 24th sees the one hundredth anniversary of the opening of the Woolworth Building, at 233 Broadway. In 1913 the Woolworth Building was the tallest inhabited building in the world, and would remain...
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Why Your Family Name Was Not Changed at Ellis Island (and One That Was)
Between 1892 and 1954, over twelve million people entered the United States through the immigration inspection station at Ellis Island, a small island located in the upper bay off the New Jersey coast....
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Can You Help Find the Descendants of Seneca Village?
A story from NPR's blog, The Lost Village in New York City, about Seneca Village, describes how historians have been unable to trace any of the descendants of the people who lived there....
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Emigrant City: Two Stories
Emigrant City is a project by New York Public Library’s NYPL Labs, in cooperation with the Library’s Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, and the...
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Genealogy Tips: Searching the Census by Address
Ever wondered who lived in your home before you? Perhaps it was someone famous? Or someone infamous. Maybe you have tried searching for your great-grandparents in old census records, but you are having...
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New York Public Library Digitizes 137 Years of New York City Directories
New York Public Library is digitizing its collection of New York City Directories, 1786 through 1922/3, serving them free through the NYPL Digital Collections portal. The first batch—1849/50 through...
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Ten Songs about Libraries and Librarians
The New York Public Library recently published a blog post about favorite fictional librarians. I'm a librarian who plays music—and the drummer in my group is also a librarian—which got me thinking...
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Direct Me NYC 1786: A History of City Directories in the United States and...
Before the telephone directory, there was the city directory, a book that listed the names, addresses, professions, and in some cases ethnicity, of people in a particular town or city. Many of these...
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Using Maps for Genealogy Research, Part 5: Gazetteers and Finding Maps
Genealogists seek records that describe names, places, and dates. Maps describe places and their names at a given point in time and, sometimes, even record the names of people. Unsurprisingly, then,...
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Using Maps for Genealogy Research, Part 4: Topographical Maps, and County...
Genealogists seek records that describe names, places, and dates. Maps describe places and their names at a given point in time and, sometimes, even record the names of people. Unsurprisingly, then,...
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Using Maps for Genealogy Research, Part 3: Place of Origin and Immigration...
Genealogists seek records that describe names, places, and dates. Maps describe places and their names at a given point in time and, sometimes, even record the names of people. Unsurprisingly, then,...
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Using Maps for Genealogy Research, Part 2: Fire Insurance Maps - Exploring...
Genealogists seek records that describe names, places, and dates. Maps describe places and their names at a given point in time and, sometimes, even record the names of people. Unsurprisingly, then,...
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Using Maps for Genealogy Research, Part 1: Finding Records
Genealogists seek records that describe names, places, and dates. Maps describe places and their names at a given point in time and, sometimes, even record the names of people. Unsurprisingly, then,...
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Stories from the U.S. Federal Census
The 2020 Census marks the 24th time that the United States has counted its population since 1790. The following article explores the history and research uses of the census, comparing population and...
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Finding Images of Your Ancestors at The New York Public Library
You want to find a photograph of your ancestor, but somewhere down the line, that person went missing from the family album. Or perhaps you have a photograph of a family picnic from years ago that...
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