City Directories as a Source of Watertown/Oakville Genealogy Information
For Watertown and Oakville, Connecticut
City Directories can provide information different, as well as better or worse, than a census page. The city directory was typically published annually thus giving data for years between the 10 year census documents. Directories are typeset, not having the handwriting legibility issues of census pages.
Watertown/Oakville was never big enough in the early days to have it's own city directory. It was included in the directory for Waterbury, CT. For 1894 and earlier, I was not able to find Watertown listed. Beginning in 1895, Watertown was included along with several other area towns and cities, Naugatuck, Thomaston, etc. This provides valuable info as the 1890 census was burned and is not available.
The early directories appear to list only working people and property owners. Most of the people in the directory are adult males. For most people an occupation is listed. Businesses were also shown, usually in large bold type, assumed to have been paid for as an advertisement as is done today. For 1895 through 1908, no addresses are given for individuals although many people have "P.O. Oakville" after their names indicating they lived there. Starting in 1909 (for the Watertown section), home addresses were added. The address was just a street name, no house numbers are found. Beginning in 1923 the wife's name was added in parentheses after her husband. Sometime between 1923 and 1933 the Watertown section was merged into the Waterbury listings.
Copies of the Waterbury (including Watertown/Oakville) directories are on microfilm at Silas Bronson Library in Waterbury, CT. See their website for hours of operation http://bronsonlibrary.org/ The films and reader/printers are located in the room to the left of the front desk. Copies of microfilm pages are 15 cents each. Use of the microfilm readers requires a debit card that can be purchased at the main desk.
Copies of the Waterbury City Directories are also found in the Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT. More recent ones are in book form and early ones are on microfilm. You can make copies of the pages from the books as well as microfilm copies. For library info see http://www.cslib.org/handg.htm
These pages copyright 2007 by Brian Gallagher