What Does One Directory Entry Prove?

[An alert reader caught a few errors in this original post--they have been left with strike throughs and corrections made in red. Thanks to anonymous for catching that.]

We are continuing work on the Frame family of Chicago. The image with this post is from the 1900 Chicago City Directory, showing Thomas Frame residing at 2543 117th Place 118th Street.

The directory entry simply means that someone at that address claimed Thomas Frame lived there when the data was collected for the 1900 directory. So it is possible that he moved before the directory was printed. It is also possible that he never lived there at all and that someone lied about it--which really is doubtful.

One should notice if other Frames are living nearby. There is a Ralph Frame at the same address 2550 117th Place and an Edward Frame at 2543 118th Street the same address as Thomas. Edward potentially has some connection given the proximity. Ralph certainly does given that they shared an address.

And of course it is always possible that the address is slightly wrong. Typos have been around for a very long time.

This entry should be compared to ones in directories before and after 1900 and to the 1900 census enumeration.