Business Directories of Newfoundland - 1864 to 1949

An Overview of Directories Available as a Genealogical Resource

Over the years, starting in 1864-65, business directories have been periodically published for Newfoundland. Most of the earliest directories were published by several private Canadian based publishing concerns, such as Hutchinson, McAlpine or Lovell. Later on, other directories were published by local Newfoundland business firms such as Devine and O'Mara of St. John's. While the main purpose of these directories was to provide advertising for businesses, professionals, and trades firms, the contents of these directories has provided us with a valuable genealogical resource. This overview covers a span of over seven decades of our evolution from a colony to a province It is interesting to note than even though confederation with Canada had been soundly rejected in the 1869 Newfoundland election, early directories refer to us as the "Province of Newfoundland". However, Newfoundland did not actually become Canada's tenth province until March 31, 1949.

While generally focused on the city of St. John's and a few other principal towns and settlements, some earlier directories covered the entire island of Newfoundland. In addition to their business content, lists of individual homeowners were provided, plus diverse information about the structure of governmental, religious and civil institutions. Where individual homeowners were listed, generally only the male head of the household (of voting age) and occupation was given. Some directories listed females, but only if they were widowed heads of households, or businesswomen, teachers, postmistresses, etc. In focused areas, eg. St. John's city, the listings sometimes included not only the head of the household, but also other employed members of the family who "boarded" there.

From 1919 onward, in addition to the alphabetized surname listing, most St. John's directories also provided listings by street name and house number. Some directories were compiled to serve as both a directory and gazetteer. In other instances, such as with the 1898 McAlpine's Directory of Newfoundland, a separate gazetteer was published giving detailed information about the Newfoundland towns and settlements listed in that Directory.

The directories on the NGB website were transcribed by volunteers, as accurately as possible, mainly from paper copies or images of the original printed directories. However, based on an analysis of these originals, it is evident that the compilers had some difficulties with the correct identification, spelling, and placement of the many locations into their respective districts. In addition it appears that errors may have been introduced into the final printed document, likely during the typesetting process.

In some cases ink bleeding or smear may be a problem, especially with small print . For example, a common Newfoundland surname such as Maher may appear to be spelled Maber in the printed document. While this error may occurred during typesetting, it may also be due to ink migration at the bottom of the letter h. Of course, the transcription of this surname (as it appears to be printed) means that a researcher, using an Internet search engine to find the surname Maher, will not find the accurately transcribed, but directory mispelled/smeared, entries for the surname. For that reason, it is recommended that researchers should compare the settlement/location of interest in the transcribed copies against the printed original pages. This might help determine if the family surname was misspelled, either in the printed copy, or the transcribed copy. The compiler's spelling/handwriting too may have been at fault but, unfortunately, that cannot be verified since the hand-written originals have not survived.

There are a number of repositories that have collections of the original directories, either in a paper, microfilm, or digital image format. However, the extent of these holdings tends to vary from location to location. We recommend that it would be wise to make a telephone call prior to a visit to verify what a location actually has, its accessibility, office hours, etc.

Physical Repositories with Paper Originals

Here are a number of repositories that have copies of various directories in their collections. There may be copies at other centers, so a telephone call to your local library should determine what documents are available in your local area.

P1/ The Rooms Provincial Archives; 9 Bonaventure Avenue; P.O. Box 1800, Station C; St. John's, NL, Canada; A1C 5P9; Tel: (709) 757-8030; Fax: (709) 757-8031; E-Mail: archives@the rooms.ca

P2/ The Family History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador; 50 Pippy Place - Unit 16B, St. John’s, NL Canada; A1B 3M7; Tel: (709) 754 – 9525; Fax: (709) 754 – 6430; Email: fhs@fhsnl.ca

P3/ Centre for Newfoundland Studies; Queen Elizabeth II Library; Memorial University of Newfoundland; St. John's, NL, Canada; A1B 3Y1 Telephone:(709) 864-7475/6; Fax: (709) 864-2153; Email: cnsqeii@mun.ca

P4/ AC Hunter Public Library; Newfoundland & Labrador Collection; Arts and Culture Centre; 125 Allandale Road; St. John's, NL, Canada; A1B 3A3; Telephone: (709) 737 3955; Fax: (709) 737-3958

P5/ City of St. John's Archives; P.O. Box 908, St. John's, NL, Canada; A1C 5M2; Tel: (709) 576-8167 Fax: (709) 576-8254; Street Address:3rd Floor, 495 Water Street; St. John's, NL; E-mail: archives@stjohns.ca

Website Repositories with Digitized Originals

In addition to the physical repositories, there are a number of websites that have digitized images of the printed originals. One such site is the Our Roots / Nos Racines, a bilingual Canadian website. I found these Newfoundland directories posted there.

R1/ Hutchinson's Newfoundland Directory for 1864-65

R2/ McAlpine's Maritime Provinces Directory for 1870-71

R3/ Lovell's Province of Newfoundland Directory 1871

R4/ Business and General Directory of Newfoundland 1877

Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative (DAI) website also has digital images of various Newfoundland directories. I found the following directories on their website:

M1/ Hutchinson's Newfoundland Directory for 1864-65

M2/ McAlpine's Maritime Provinces Directory for 1870-1871

M3/ Lovell's Province of Newfoundland Directory 1871

M4/ Business and general directory of Newfoundland 1877

M5/ McAlpine's Newfoundland directory, 1894 to 1897

M6/ McAlpine's Newfoundland directory, 1898

M7/ McAlpine's Newfoundland Directory, 1904

M8/ McAlpine's Newfoundland Directory, 1908-09