Telephone Directories on Microfiche at Sutro Library

Similar to city directories, phone directories can be used to identify where an ancestor was at a certain time, which is especially useful when tracking movement in between the census years (i.e. every 10 years). The bulk of the Sutro Library’s telephone directories exist on microfiche and cover more recent years from 1970s – 2000s. This database includes information on the title of the directory (often the city or county is represented here), year of publication, type (yellow or white pages), and some entries include a notes field detailing communities that are included in that directory. Click on the green plus (+) sign to the left of the result in order to expand the notes field, if there is one. We are currently uploading the entries for every 10 states that we complete so you may not yet return results for your area of interest. Check back soon if that's the case!

You can search this database in a few ways:

• By keyword in the search box on the right (searching the city or county of interest).
• By the filters on the left-hand side which include state, type (white or yellow pages), and by date.
• By the filters first and then do a keyword search of those results.

Please note: this database is for searching which directories are in the Sutro Library’s holdings and is NOT a database for searching for specific names in those directories.

Once you identify the directory you need, write down the title and year and schedule an on-site visit in our reading room. Feel free to contact us at sutro@library.ca.gov with any questions!