New Hampshire Directories

Directories are alphabetical lists of names and addresses. City directories can help you learn where an ancestor lived. The person’s occupation is frequently given. Often the home address and business address are both mentioned. When a husband dies, many times the widow is listed as "widow of...."

Directories can help you determine which jurisdictional ward the family lived in if you are searching census records for a particular time period in a big city. Directories sometimes have maps and addresses of churches, cemeteries, courthouses, and other important locations.

The New Hampshire Historical Society has an excellent collection of city directories. The Family History Library has the following, some on microfilm, some on microfiche:


 * Concord 1830–1935 (gaps)
 * Dover 1830–1935 (gaps)
 * Great Falls 1848 (now Somersworth)
 * Keene 1827, 1830, 1831, 1871–1935 (gaps)
 * Manchester 1844–1935 (gaps)
 * Nashua 1841–1935 (gaps)
 * New Hampshire 1849
 * New Ipswich 1858
 * Peterborough 1830
 * Portsmouth 1817–1935 (gaps)

To locate the source numbers for the directories at the Family History Library, use the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog for:

NEW HAMPSHIRE,[COUNTY],[TOWN]- DIRECTORIES

Other directories may be located at the New Hampshire Historical Society. For their address, see the "Societies" section of this outline.