Scranton City Directory 1931 and Google Earth

While searching my Brady line in Scranton, I came across a Scranton City Directory from 1931.  The person I was searching for was Alberta (Wenis) Brady and her husband James Brady.  I knew they lived in Scranton, but I didn't know where or how James was employed.  So the Scranton City Directory for 1931 popped up and I opened it:

So there they are at the top of the right hand column.  It says: Brady Jas I (Alberta), waiter Wyo Lunch h 736 Washn av. You may able to see the yellow highlight.  Just a few things about this entry:

1. It says Brady Jas I - Jas is the abbreviation for James and I think the middle initial should be J, 
2. Alberta in parenthesis is his spouse's name
3. Waiter is his occupation
4. Wyo Lunch in the employer - Wyoming Ave Luncheonette?
5. 736 Washington Ave is his home address

Look how much you can learn from a City Directory.  The other thing that you can learn is to look through the rest of the page for other Bradys (cause it is done alphabetically - like a phone book).  I know it is tough to see here, but I found five more Bradys on this page who I know are related and others who may be related and I just don't know it yet. So here we go.

 Left hand column, seven up from the bottom, we have Brady, Hannah G, tchr r 613 Adams Ave.  This can be translated to Hannah G Brady, teacher, lives at 613 Adams Ave.  There is no name in parenthesis so she is not married.

Directly below her is another Hannah M Brady, (wid Wm) r 613 Adams Ave.  This Hannah's mother, and widow of Dr. William F Brady and they live in the same house.

In the right column two below James, is another Brady entry:
Brady, John F (Irene) adjuster r 613 Adams Ave.  This is William and Hannah's son John, who lives with his wife Irene (O'Hara) at the same address, and he is employed as an insurance adjuster.

Right below John F, is another Brady: John J (Anna L) h 522 Ripple St - notice there is no employer or occupation, he has retired from the International Correspondence School.

And last, but not least, Brady, Regina D tchr r 613 Adams Av.  She is listed ten names below John and Anna.  She is also a teacher and also living at home with her mother, sister and brother.

So I found all of this information from one page in the 1931 City Directory for Scranton PA.  Not too shabby.

This is my favorite part.  Using this page and all of the info that I found, I opened up Google Earth.  I told you once before about marking out specific addresses in Google earth, so this is what I did:

Now you gotta admit this is good.  I saved and marked each house with the address on the aerial shot from Google Earth, then I saved it as a PDF, and added the text to show who lives at each address with the info from the City Directory.  I mean it is not to scale or anything crazy like that, but it gives you an idea of where everyone lived in the city.

Just so you know, there are a total of 35 Bradys in the Scranton City Directory for 1931, and these are six of the one that I know are in my family.  I'm pretty sure that some of the other 29 are also related and  I would need a much larger printout to add the rest.

Before I go, I have to give credit where credit is due.  I learned how to do this by using some tips for a podcast by Lisa Louise Cooke called Genealogy Gems.  There is a whole webinar on how to get started with Google Earth on her website.  She also wrote a book on Genealogy and Google Earth - just in case you're interested.