Wisconsin Directories

History
City and county directories are similar to present-day telephone books and are useful records for locating people. They were often published annually, listing heads of households, employed household members, and their occupations and addresses. Directories may focus on the businesses or occupations of an area, or include heads of households, landowners, and voters.

Directories are particularly helpful for research in cities. A directory may be the only source that lists a person if he was not registered to vote and did not own property. Most households were included because the directories were created for salesmen, merchants, and others interested in contacting residents of an area.

Directories have other clues that may require careful study to discover. For example, people in similar or related occupations were often relatives, in-laws, or friends. A year-by-year study of directories may reveal the movements of ancestors and relatives within the city and sometimes to or from other cities.

Examples of directories that may be found in an archive are: city directories, telephone directories, church directories, occupational directories, farmers directories, or rosters of society members.

Libraries and Archives
The Wisconsin Historical Society has the a collection of city, business, occupational, and other directories of names.

Directories Online

 * Appleton City Directories
 * Eau Claire City Directories
 * Fond du Lac County Directories
 * Gogebic Range City Directories
 * La Crosse City Directories
 * Madison City Directories
 * Oshkosh City Directories
 * Rock County Directories
 * Fold3 ($) has Milwaukee City Directories 1861-1892 online.
 * Ancestry] ($) has Wisconsin directories in its U.S. City Directories collection.

The FamilySearch Library
The FamilySearch Library has city directories for various years from throughout the state of Wisconsin including:

Milwaukee

1847–60 FS Library fiche 1861–1935 FS Library film

Madison

1851–59, 1866–1935 (some gaps) FS Library fiche 1923, 1937, 1968 FS Library book 977.583/M1 E4w

To find directories, consult the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:


 * WISCONSIN, [COUNTY] — DIRECTORIES
 * WISCONSIN, [COUNTY], [TOWN] — DIRECTORIES

Websites

 * Wisconsin Historical Society
 * US City Directories This website identifies printed, microfilmed, and online directories and their repositories.