West Bay City, Michigan Directory, 1889-1890

Located along the eastern coastline of Michigan, in a large inlet of Lake Huron, Bay City forms part of Bay County. This database is a transcription of a city directory for the western portion of the city that was originally published in 1889. In addition to providing the residents' names, it provides their addresses and occupational information. The database includes more than 4,400 names, mostly heads of household. This information was extracted from photocopies of microfilm located at the Michigan State Archive in Lansing; it was submitted to Ancestry.com by Nettie Graden, 1218 Lawrence Ave., Leavenworth, KS 66048. Copies of the pages may be ordered by sending $1 per page plus a stamped, long envelope to Nettie Graden at the above address.

Description of Wards Included in This Database:

First Ward—embraces all of Sections 14 and 15 and part of Section 16 from the west end of Keystone Mills and from the center of the Saginaw River north to the city limits.

Second Ward—contains the portion Section 16 that is not in the First Ward, as well as the east half of section 17, the north quarter of Section 20, and Section 21. It extends north of the center line of Dunbar Street in Litchfield's addition to the village of Wenona, to the railroad track, and north of the north line of Dunbar Street; it extends east from the railroad track to the center of the Saginaw River.

Third Ward—includes the parts of Sections 20 and 21 north of the center line of Jane Street and extends in a direct line east through Fitzhugh and Kiesel's subdivision of the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 20; includes the plat of Lake City and extends further to the center of the Saginaw River, excluding those parts of the city in the Second Ward.

Fourth Ward—covers the part of Section 20 that is south of the center line of Jane Street, as described for the Third Ward, as well as pieces of the northwest quarter of Section 29 and that part of the plat of Salzburg that is north of the center line of Ninth Street, extending to the center of the Saginaw River.

Fifth Ward—embraces all of Section 29 that is not in the Fourth Ward and all of Section 32.

Sixth Ward—includes the land between the center line of Center Street (on the quarter line of Section 20) and the west boundary line of Section 20 and the land between the center line of North Union Street and the north boundary of the Fourth Ward (described above), or the entire northwest quarter of Section 20 and all of the southwest quarter of Section 20 that lies north of the center line of Jane Street.

City directories are primarily useful for locating people in a particular place and time. They can tell you generally where an ancestor lived and give an exact location for census years. They are also useful for linkage with sources other than censuses.

There are usually several parts to a city directory. The section of most interest to the genealogist, of course, is the alphabetical listing of names, for it is there that you may find your ancestor.

Whenever you use a directory, however, it is important to refer to the page showing abbreviations used in the alphabetical section of the directory, usually following the name in each entry. Some abbreviations are quite common, such as h for home or r, indicating residence. There may even be a subtle distinction between r for residents who are related to the homeowner and b for boarders who are not related.

Some city directories list adult children who lived with their parents but were working or going to school. Look for persons of the same surname residing at the same address. If analyzed and interpreted properly, these annual directories can tell you (by implication) which children belong to which household, when they married and started families of their own, and when they established themselves in business. In cases where specific occupation is given, you can search records pertinent to that occupation.

Once an ancestor has been found in a city directory, there are several ways the information can be used to gain access to, or link with, such sources as censuses, death and probate records, church records, naturalization records, and land records.

Taken from Chapter 11: Research in Directories, The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy by Gordon Lewis Remington; edited by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1997).