[PW] town business listings

[Bob Boyce]

I don't know if anyone else has responded to this question, but here's my two cents: property records, and tax records. It depends of course on how much time one wants to spend going through those old records, and on whether records have been kept...Also, some states published state lists of businesses, sorted by cities and also by type of business--called them gazeteers. And of course there are personal memoirs/biographies/autobiographies/photographs and all the other historical materials!!!! They might well have mentions of local businesses:I met Jane at Father's drug store/Matthew had to go to Lane's dime store for some chewing tobacco/etc.

Bob Boyce
Reference Department, Lincoln NE City Libraries
r.boyce at LincolnLibraries.org



-----Original Message-----
From: "Kevin O'Kelly" rkokelly at yahoo.com
Sent 11/29/2007 2:12:48 PM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: Re: [PW] town business listings

The uncle of a friend of mine plans to write a history of his home town (Brundige, Alabama). He wants to create a list of all the businesses that operated in this town going back to 1850. I have been asked how he can do this.
My response: a comprehensive list is impossible. He might be able to put together a partial list if Brundige published annual city directories that included listings of local businesses, and if any of those directories have been preserved (such town directories were very common in Massachusetts, where I work, I have no idea if towns in other parts of the country had them).
Nonpopulation census information regarding businesses seems to be limited.
I told my friend his uncle also might have to spend a great deal of time scanning old Brundige newspapers for ads to the names of some local businesses.
Any other suggestions?
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