City Directories Prior to telephone books, city directories were published that tried ot capture the names of all working members of a household. Shown about is the last city directory published for Brooklyn, in 1933. Some of the Tarrs are family members. City directories are used by genealogists in a variety of ways. They sometimes show familial relationship because two entries may be for the same address. They are useful for locating entries in censuses that are not indexed because they give the street address in the year the census was taken. They can provide a clue as to when a husaband died because the man is droppedd from the directory and the wife is shown as head of household.