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My great-grandfather, like most of my agriculturally minded ancestors, was a farmer for most of his life. But in the late 1880s, hard times must have hit the farm.

He left rural Kansas and moved to Kansas City. During four years in the city he worked as a laborer, a watchman for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and as a huckster (a quaint name for a street peddler).

City life must not have suited him because he surfaced a few years later in Oklahoma, farming once again.

That city-stint, from 1887 to 1890, couldn't have happened at a better time. We typically rely on the federal census to help track our ancestors and their occupations; but, the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire.

So, how did I pinpoint my wandering grandfather during those lost years? I found him in city directories for Kansas City.

City directories, basically phone books before there were phones, have been produced in America since the 1700s. Various companies have published the books through the years, and they are still published annually.

A city directory is a valuable resource for researchers because practically no other type of record can provide a year by year snapshot of what our urban-dwelling ancestors were up to.

City directories generally list the names of adult residents, their addresses and occupations. You'll find lists of city employees and various government officials.

Although our ancestral women often left sparse records, they frequently got their names into a city directory, either as a primary resident or listed parenthetically as a spouse. Sometimes the directory added notes to a woman's entry stating she was the widow of so and so - a handy clue about when her husband died.

Once you find your ancestor's address in a city directory, be sure to check the directory for a separate street index. These alphabetical listings of streets show all the residents of each dwelling. This is useful because family members who resided together didn't always have the same last name.

And if a widow disappears from a directory one year, check the street index for her last known address. She may have remarried, changed her name and invited her new husband to live in her home.

Even if your ancestors stayed put on the farm, you still might find them in a city directory. Some city directories also included the surrounding rural communities.

Look for city directories at the local public library. The Special Collections branch in Downtown Albuquerque has directories dating back to the early 1880s. The library also has directories for other towns in New Mexico.

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has more than 4,000 city directories. Search the online catalog and if the directory you want has been microfilmed, you can order it from your local family history center.

Local colleges and universities often have collections of city directories. Cornell University in New York, for example, has a large collection.

The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., has a substantial collection. Check their online catalog.

Also search for directories at state historical society libraries.