Directories

The VPL collection includes many types of current and past directories. Try some of the following tips when searching the library catalogue for directories of special historical and genealogical interest.

• Enter the name of the place for which you want to locate directories, combining it with the words directories and genealogy, for example: Toronto directories genealogy.
• If your search yields few or no results, try broadening the place name to a county or province, for example: Ontario directories genealogy.
• Dropping the word genealogy from your search strategy will yield a larger set of results (although some may be irrelevant): Ontario directories.
• Using the word registers in combination with the name of a township/city, county or province may also retrieve some directory records, for example: Wentworth registers.
• Note, however, that as well as retrieving some directory records, registers also retrieves references to census and other kinds of records.

The print directory resources listed in this section are facsimile publications. All are available at the Vancouver Public Library.

National

The Canada Directory: Containing the Names of the Professional and Business Man ... in the Cities, Towns and Principal Villages of Canada, Together With A Complete Post Office Directory of the Province; A Directory to Public Offices, Officers and Institutions; A Variety of Statistical and Commercial Tables ... and A Variety of Other Useful Information. VPL holdings: 1851, 1857/58, 1871.

Provincial

The following series of directories are all sub-titled "Names of Professional and Business Men and Other Inhabitants in the Cities, Towns & Villages Throughout the Province". All were originally produced by Lovell, a leading directory publisher, and have been reprinted in facsimile editions by the Genealogical Research Library (GRL).

The directories do not provide a single alphabetical listing of individuals for each province, but are arranged by place name. The entry for each place includes a brief description, the approximate population, and an alphabetical list of members of "Professions, Trades, etc."

See our Provincial Directories booklist for a list of related books.

City

Only a few historical city directories for outside B.C. are available at the Vancouver Public Library, mainly covering the Toronto area:

• "Based on the Toronto portion of George Brown's 1846 directory of Toronto and the Home District".
• "Extracted from the Toronto portion of Rowsell's City of Toronto and County of York directory for 1850-51, published by Henry Rowsell in 1850".
• "Extracted from the York County portion of Rowsell's City of Toronto and County of York directory for 1850-51".
• Includes a transcript of the alphabetical name listing for Lethbridge, Alberta from Henderson's Manitoba, Northwest Territories and British Columbia Gazetteer and Directory for 1891.

See our City Directories booklist for a list of related books.

Ontario Farmers' Directories

The farmers' directories listed below provide alphabetical listings of all the farmers in one township or more, along with each farmer's post office address, status (e.g. freeholder, tenant, etc.), concession, and lot number. Covers the entire county.

See our Ontario Farmers' Directories (A-L) and Ontario Farmers' Directories (M-Z) booklists for a list of related books, or try searching our catalogue for Ontario farmer's direct*.

Historical County Atlases

The Vancouver Public Library owns a series of facsimile reprints of Canadian county atlases originally published in the latter quarter of the nineteenth century. These atlases provide a great deal of information about individual counties, townships and villages. Many include directories. The directories usually only list the names of patrons - individuals who financially supported the publication of the atlas. For more information, see our page on Historical Atlases.

Early Canadiana Research Collection

Many pre-1900 Canadian directories are part of the Early Canadiana Research Collection of digitized microform documents compiled by Canadiana.org (formerly the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions). UBC holds a complete set of the Canadiana.org microform collection, which can be consulted by the public.

VPL has print indexes of materials in the Early Canadiana Research Collection, including the following:

• Genealogy and Local History to 1900: A Bibliography Selected from the Catalogue of the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, CIHM
• Pre-1900 Canadian Directories: Catalogue

You can also search the UBC Canadiana.org collection directly online, using the UBC Catalogue. To find CIHM materials in the catalogue:

• Enter CIHM and place name and directories, e.g. CIHM and Kingston and directories
• In the Using box at the right, select Keyword (USE and, or, not, "a phrase")
• Click on the Search button.
• If there is a result that you would like to follow up, click on it, and note the CIHM number. You will need this when you visit UBC to look at the microfiche copy of the directory.

Peel Collection

Pre-1953 directories are included in the Peel Collection, named for Bruce Braden Peel, compiler of a comprehensive bibliography of the Prairie provinces.

Originals of most items listed in the Peel bibliography have been microfilmed. The Peel Collection microform collection is available at UBC (Peel Bibliography on Microfiche). A finding aid specifically for the city directories is shelved with the UBC Peel Collection.

The Peel bibliography can also be searched online.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC)

Library and Archives Canada has a very rich collection of Canadian directories in print, microform and electronic formats. The directory holdings of the LAC are listed in the following publication, available at 

• Canadian Directories, 1790-1987: a Bibliography and Place-Name Index

This publication lists the print and microform directory holdings of the LAC, and includes both bibliographies and place-name indexes. There are 1200 bibliographic entries for directories published from 1790-1987 for Canadian cities, towns, townships, counties, districts, regions and provinces.

You can also search the directory holdings of Library and Archives Canada through their Aurora database, a catalogue of published material held by the LAC. Note, however, that many directories are not available for interlibrary loan. If you are unable to visit Library and Archives Canada or another owning library in person, you may have to contact the library or hire a researcher.

Library and Archives Canada has also digitized selected early Canadian directories on its Canadian Directories Collection webpage.

To order a print or digital reproduction of material in the collection at Library and Archives Canada, please visit their Copy Services web page.

This large electronic collection of Canadian genealogical data includes information derived from a wide variety of sources, including many historical Canadian directories. It is part of the Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) database, available at all Vancouver Public Library locations.

To locate directory information in the Canadian Genealogy Index:

• Open Ancestry Library Edition (available at VPL locations only; no remote access).
• Click on Search (in the navigation bar at the top)
• On the Search page, click on Card Catalog (under Search Resources at the top right of the screen).
• In the Card Catalog, enter Canadian Genealogy Index in the Database Title box.
• Click on Search.
• Open the Canadian Genealogy Index.
• Make sure that the Exact matches only box is checked.
• Enter appropriate information in the Last Name field and complete other fields as desired.
• Select Living from the Event drop-down list.
• Submit the search. Note that not all results will refer to directories.