60 years of Smileys in Philadelphia

I have compiled all the Smileys in the Philadelphia City Directories between 1860 and 1935. There are 3,542 entries in total. Each of the files is fairly large so give it time to load. Follow the links below to search for your Smileys.

So why did I create this database? At first it was because I could not tell which Smileys were in my family tree. We have quite a few missing and I hoped that I would find them wandering around the City during that time period.

But as I read the directories, I got to know all the other Smileys. You can see them as they first appear on the scene. Then they move around the city looking for better jobs and housing. Eventually you see their children grow and move out on their own. Finally you may see a man drop out of the directory and his address is taken up by his widow. It is all there.

Each entry starts with the person's first name. Then the year and street name and then the address on the street. The next column is marked if the address was a home address and the following column is marked if it is a work address. A few people had both addresses listed each year. The last column is the occupation listed for that person.

The occupation is very useful for tracing people with similar names. People generally stayed in the same industry or trade. They might have different jobs within the industry but most remained in that work group.

That knowledge has not always been very helpful to me. My great-grandfather Robert W. Smiley was a beamer and lived in Frankford. There was another Robert W. Smiley who was also a beamer who lived in Germantown. I have since found that he was a nephew.

Let me know if you find anthing useful here.

Bob Smiley, May, 2002