09 October 2012

Tracking Down a Policeman's Career

Entry for Frank Vanderlinden, 1895 Chicago City Directory, obtained on  Fold3 .

Frank Vanderlinden was a Chicago City police officer for several years. I'm trying to determine when he enlisted on the force and approximately when he retired. Census records are one way to work on that, but the ten year gap between the enumerations and the lack of an 1890 census makes estimating his work time a little difficult given the time period when he worked.

Fortunately there are city directories that can help me with this problem. The image on this post comes from the 1895 Chicago City Directory obtained on Fold3. I'm hoping to use additional directories to fill in a few details about Frank. We'll have occasional updates on him as information is located. Frank's wife was Hannah Frame--sister of my children's great-great-grandfather William Frame.

Fold3 has many of the Chicago city directories online--and those for other cities as well..