City Directories & Employer Clues (1890–1940)
Directories rebuild households between censuses and name mills, shops, and streets.
Between federal censuses, city directories are Greenville’s highest-yield urban sources. They list head-of-household, occupation, employer, spouse notations (varying by year), and addresses you can plot against churches and wards.
- Collect every directory entry for a surname cluster in a ten-year window.
- Note employer names—textile firms, railroads, shops—and search mill-village topics and newspapers for that company.
- Watch widows, boarders, and adult children at the same address; they often prove kinship when deeds are thin.
- When the family vanishes, check Spartanburg and Anderson city lists before assuming out-of-state migration only.
Pair with census and newspapers. Print session notes on the Greenville cheatsheet.