Browse Terrytown City Directories

Terrytown City Directory Shelves

Terrytown's useful directory era begins around the community's 1960 opening. The New Orleans Suburban Polk title started in 1955 and its catalog record names Terrytown among the communities covered. Haines & Company CrissCross began in 1966 and provides the key address-to-name route. The New Orleans City Archives says it holds all published copies of these series, but research did not locate a year-by-year Terrytown shelf list. Confirm a target year before making a trip.

The NOPL catalog also shows a two-volume 1999-2014 bibliographic record for the Polk title. That is item metadata, not proof that every annual edition survives. Pre-1960 New Orleans volumes can explain regional names and roads but cannot directly establish a Terrytown residence before the planned community existed.

Terrytown Begins in 1960

Jefferson Parish records Terrytown's public opening on March 6, 1960, when developer Paul Kapelow presented 15 decorated model houses. The community followed the 1958 bridge connection and was promoted as a planned Westbank suburb. That origin gives directory research a firm pivot: a Terrytown entry before 1960 is likely a cataloging mistake, later label, nearby locality, or predecessor-land reference.

The Jefferson Historical Society Terrytown page adds the alphabetical street plan and development context.

This history narrows the years to search and helps interpret a first appearance, but it is not itself a resident list.

Terrytown Polk and CrissCross Years

R.L. Polk's New Orleans Suburban directory began in 1955. The official library catalog identifies Polk of Richmond, Virginia, and specifically includes Terrytown and Jefferson Parish among its communities. Search name sections after 1960, then check address and phone sections when present. Cite the title, edition year, section, page, and printed spelling.

Haines CrissCross begins in 1966, making address-to-name research possible within Terrytown's earliest settled decade. This is the city's most useful directory quirk. A reverse volume starts with a street and house number rather than a surname. Archives staff should confirm whether the exact requested year is held, because no official complete annual shelf list was found.

The Jefferson Historical Society Virtual Archives provides a companion set of parish records.

Its yearly reviews and other scans can explain a directory address even when they do not name the household.

Read a Terrytown Directory Entry

The City Archives reading guide uses a real 1971 Polk example to show the method, although the sample person is not from Terrytown. Preserve the printed form before interpreting it. The letter “r” means resident, “wid” marks a widow relationship, and the street number is the locator. These notations do not establish ownership. A name section, address section, and phone section may each contribute different information.

Criss-cross directory

A reverse volume ordered by street and house number instead of surname.

Householder index

A name list centered on the person identified as the household entry, not every occupant.

Abbreviation key

The publisher's legend for symbols and shortened terms; save it with the cited page.

A missing listing is not proof that a person had left. Publication cutoffs, unlisted numbers, moves, name variants, and skipped households can all create gaps. Pair a directory entry with a dated independent record.

Terrytown Library Research Route

Begin at the Terrytown Library, 680 Heritage Avenue. The branch opened in 1974 and can help with a library card, archive authentication, and referral. West Bank Regional Library at 2751 Manhattan Boulevard in Harvey provides deeper reference help, including the Book a Librarian service for genealogy and local history.

The local branch page shows the current Terrytown access point.

For a specific year, tell staff the directory title, likely edition, surname or address, and whether an address or phone section is needed. Some databases work remotely with a card; print and archive materials may need an appointment.

The reference service is the fallback when a catalog search stalls.

Staff help is especially valuable because the verified series starts do not guarantee that every Terrytown year is on one shelf.

Extend Terrytown Directory Clues

Jefferson Parish Library's genealogy resources name a Times-Picayune obituary search for January 1972 through 1978, plus a current obituary window and Obituary Daily Times. An index hit supplies a name, date, and newspaper lead. It is not a death certificate. Open the newspaper page and verify the printed relationship, place, and date.

Search a full name with “Terrytown,” “Gretna,” a street, school, church, or civic group. The library also routes researchers to Times-Picayune archives for 1837-2017 and 2017 forward. A directory address can distinguish same-name newspaper hits, while an obituary can explain why a name stops appearing.

Note: Cite the newspaper title, publication date, page, and archive source rather than citing only an obituary index result.

Jefferson Records Before Terrytown

The Historical Society's digitized WPA project includes a 1939 parish-record inventory and Police Jury minutes from 1834 through 1938. These years precede Terrytown, so they cannot list its residents. They can identify predecessor roads, public works, drainage, or land administration and point toward the older custodian.

The Louisiana Historical Center holds regional directories from 1838 forward, cemetery card indexes, cemetery records, and vertical files in a library of about 28,000 items. It is a good escalation point when a family appears in a regional source but not in a suburban Polk volume. The State Archives microfilm guide also identifies Jefferson conveyances from 1850 through 1896, subject to the Clerk's custody rules.

This prehistory guards against a common error. A pre-1960 regional name near the future community is context, not a Terrytown city directory entry.

The record trail also changed by format. Old parish sources may require archive permission or microfilm, modern land images may sit behind JeffNet, and free eClerks searching supplies only an index layer. A directory citation should retain its own custodian rather than being blended with those legal-record systems. Each collection preserves a different key: street address, legal description, parcel number, newspaper date, or archive volume.

Terrytown Directory Evidence Limits

A city directory is a dated publication, not a deed or continuous census. A person may be shown at a business, a relative's home, or an address occupied only near the publisher's cutoff. An address section can omit unlisted households. Owner and renter status should not be inferred unless the volume's own key defines a mark, and even then the finding needs a property record.

No official, complete Terrytown obituary index or volume-by-volume directory inventory was found. State that gap plainly. Ask the City Archives or library to confirm the year, and use the Terrytown street directory when modern parcel and deed evidence is needed.

Trace Family Through Terrytown Directories

Build a timeline one edition at a time. The 1950 federal census is public in 2026, but the 1960 population schedule remains closed under the 72-year rule. Early Terrytown family work therefore leans more on deeds, Polk, CrissCross, newspapers, yearbooks, and parish records until later census schedules open.

1. Find the first post-1960 name entry and copy it exactly, including abbreviations and page.
2. Check the same address in the volume's reverse or phone section, if available.
3. Move forward and backward by edition, noting each address, relationship mark, and gap.
4. Pair open census years with nearby directory years, and bridge the closed 1960 schedule with deeds and newspapers.
5. Test the last appearance against an obituary page, cemetery resource, parcel record, or recorded conveyance.

Disappearance alone supports no single explanation. The person may have moved, died, changed a printed name, joined another household, or gone unlisted. A newspaper date, later directory, deed, or eligible vital record is needed to choose among those possibilities.

Keep contradictions. If a Polk page, Assessor card, and obituary use different locality labels, record each wording and date. Terrytown is a Census-designated, unincorporated place, and postal or regional labels may not match the parcel geography.

Finish with a simple evidence line for each year: printed name, exact address, directory title and page, then one independent source. A deed can test ownership, a newspaper can test a life event, and an Assessor card can test the modern parcel. None should silently replace what the directory printed. This method preserves gaps and makes the family timeline easy to review when a new volume or census schedule becomes available.