An early directory of Ottawa / Bytown published by Boyd & McDonald. It advertises itself to contain, "..the names and residence of the Citizens; also, a subscribers Business Directory, classified according to trade." Examination seems to indicate that it also contains the names and addresses of business who were not "subscribers."
The directory's listings identify Boarders as well as Householders and Business Proprietors. The majority of the entries also indicate the individuals trade or profession, including those identified as "Labourer."
At first one might be surprised at the limited size of this directory but the city of Ottawa / Bytown at this time had not gobbled up the surrounding villages of New Edinburgh, Billings, and Bells Corners or the townships of Nepean and Gloucester. The areas included are: Victoria Island, Lower Town, Centre Town and Upper Town. Another consideration of the city's size in that this was the period following the timber "boom," so that many of the transient workers in that trade had moved on, and before the city actually became the seat of Government with the consequential influx of Politicians and Civil Servants.
The listing contains primarily the male population who have attained the "age of majority" and the widows. Listings for widows frequently give the deceased husbands given name. There are a few "spinsters" identified, and female names are given for businesses whose owners were female. There are a few "Mrs." designations but nowhere near enough to account for the wives of all the men mentioned so we conclude these were married ladies living on their own.
Notable, but characteristic of the time, is that there are no street numbers given for addresses, only a reference to a nearby cross street or some other identifying feature. One can only speculate that in order to find the dwelling of a particular individual you would have to arrive in the vicinity and then question passer's by as to the exact location of dwelling of the person being sought. Or could it be that everyone was in the habit of hanging out their "shingle?"
High quality scanned images of the whole of the original book. This CD has been bookmarked for easy navigation, and pages can be searched, browsed, enlarged and printed out if required.
