Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Lovell's Montreal Directories Online

Yup, it has been a while, hasn't it? But, I'm so excited about this resource, I just had to make the time to tell you about it too.
(With special thanks to Global Genealogy for their Global Gazette, & Gordon Watts for writing about it there)
The Bibliothèque et Archives Nationale du Quebec has put the Lovell's directories for Montreal online as pdfs. The are not searchable by name, but if you have a particular research date, you can look at the pages of the directory to see if your ancestor is included. The directories begin in 1842, and with the exception of 1851, are available in their entirety until 1950. 1951-1999 is in progress. While the instructions on how to use the directories are in French, the directories themselves are in English.
Unlike Gordon, I do have ancestors from Montreal. My maternal Great-Grandmother was baptised in 1865 at La basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal, and I was extremely excited to find her father listed, Onésime Delisle, on Rue St-Urbain, within walking distance of the Basilica. I also found a number of other relatives across the various years. Time for a visit to Montreal to take a look at where they all used to live.