If you’re new to the topic, city directories and phone books are not the same thing. City directories, also called Polk directories, long predate the invention of the telephone and attempted to list all adults (or adult men), businesses, churches, charities, schools, government offices, etc., in a specific community. Phone books list only those who were telephone customers. Universal telephone use is a late 20th century phenomenon.
In case it is not clear, the folks at BuffaloResearch do not own any directories. Instead, we watch for when various providers digitize them. Then we collect the links here. Every directory below is online in full text for free, though FamilySearch will require you to register for a free account.
Directories are shown one year per row. Some years have been digitized by more than one provider. Some years have not been digitized at all. Most directories newer than 1927 are still protected by copyright, which is why only a few of them are online.
Offline, hard-copy Buffalo directories can still be browsed in the Grosvenor Room of the Buffalo & Erie County Pubic Library and by appointment in the Research Library at The Buffalo History Museum.
No Buffalo city directories were published in the years 1829-1831, 1833, 1834, 1843, 1845, 1846, 1943-1945, 1947, 1949, 1954, 1973, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1994, and 1995.
| Abbreviation (example: 1904-SR) | Stands For |
|---|---|
| AB | Address Book* |
| B | Businesses only |
| BB | Blue Book* |
| GL | Great Lakes (marine trades & businesses) |
| SR | Social Register* |
| T | Telephone book |
Here are some random, old and new special-topic directories.
Buffalo Directories
By the way, we also have some directories from Erie County and Western NY.
Erie County and Beyond
Compared to Buffalo, few directories were published for the suburbs, towns & villages of Erie County. The R.L. Polk Company, who is still the nation’s dominant city directory publisher, didn’t offer coverage outside of Buffalo until 1957. A few random early Erie County directories do exist, though. We’ll add links if we find that they’ve been digitized.
BuffaloResearch.com 