Source Information

Palin, Dawn, comp. North Platte, Lincoln County, Nebraska Directory, 1907-1908 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001.
Original data: Hoffhine's North Platte, Nebraska Directory for 1907-08. Springfield, MO, USA: Hoffhine Directory Company, 1908.

About North Platte, Lincoln County, Nebraska Directory, 1907-1908

North Platte is located in the center of Lincoln County and is the county seat. Lincoln County is located just to the south and west of Nebraska's center. This database is a transcription of a county directory originally published in 1907 and 1908. In addition to providing the names of business firms and private citizens, it lists addresses and occupational information. The database includes more than 3,600 names, mostly heads of household.

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).