[PW] Access to old telephone directory...?

[Tiar, Marc]

Just a couple thoughts hoping that Connecticut might correlate to practices in my neck of the woods (NV)...

The CT State Library website says they have "an extensive collection of Connecticut [city] directories from the early nineteenth century through ca. 1992 and a microfiche collection of directories from throughout the US to ca. 1870".

Also, around here, the state historical society has old city directories and phone books.  The CT HS doesn't mention them on their website, but that doesn't mean they don't hold some.

Last, perhaps the town assessor's office has historical records of property ownership?  That's more of a longshot, searching by name rather than land parcel, but as a last effort, maybe...

Do Sanborn fire maps have indications of property owners?  Not sure, but that was something else that occurred to me, and it looks like CT State Library has access to those.

Marc Tiar
Washoe County Library

-----Original Message-----
From: project-wombat-fm-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
[mailto:project-wombat-fm-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org]On Behalf Of
Diane Rainaud
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 5:54 PM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: [PW] Access to old telephone directory...?


 Hello,
 
I'm trying to do a favor for a friend and am hoping someone here can help.
My friend is in his 50s and lives in California.  When he was in middle
school and high school his family lived in the town I'm in...West Hartford,
CT.  He'd like a current photo of the home they lived in, but he can't
remember the address.  I thought I might be able to find the address in an
old telephone directory, but got this reply from the local library:

"The West Hartford Public Library does own Hartford phone directories, which
include West Hartford, from 1969 to the present. We also own city
directories which cover West Hartford from 1940 to the present. However,
this collection is currently unavailable because of a major renovation
project going on in our main library building. When we reopen that facility
in the Fall of 2007, we'd be happy to check these directories for you."

I'm hoping that someone on this list might be able to point me in another
direction to find my friend's old street address, or perhaps have access to
the directories that are unavailable here at the moment.  The family's last
name is Geisinger...I don't know what the father's first name was which is
probably how any listing would have been made.  I imagine, though, there
probably weren't many families with that last name so am hoping it won't be
too difficult a search.  The family would have lived there in the 1960s and
70s.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Diane



_______________________________________________
Project Wombat
list at project-wombat.org
http://www.project-wombat.org