Bergenfield City Directory Holdings
Bergenfield's local record is a shelf of distinct publications, not one continuous Bergenfield city directory. The Bergenfield Library finding aid identifies the best-documented runs. It also describes the formats around them, including maps, official lists, organizations, and later community reference material. Dates and titles matter because a residential directory, a community booklet, and a yellow-pages publication do not answer the same question.
| Collection | Years | Where held | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twin Boro Directory | 1926-1927 | Bergenfield Library local-history holdings | Finding aid; one item digitized online |
| Know Your Bergenfield | 1947 | Bergenfield Library archive | Three copies listed; physical/archive inquiry |
| Borough of Bergenfield Redbook | 1977 | Bergenfield Library archive | Finding-aid holding |
| Community Source Directory | 1996-1997 | Bergenfield Library archive | Finding-aid holding |
| Yellow Book | 1999; 2003-2004 | Bergenfield Library archive | Finding-aid holding |
No Bergenfield source reviewed established a complete annual sequence or the last printed year of a full Bergenfield household directory. Treat an absent year as a gap in the identified holdings, not proof that a household was absent from the borough. The library archives and Reference staff are the sound fallback when an edition needs confirmation.
Note: A collection title and date should accompany any transcription, because separate directories in the archive serve different places and periods.
Bergenfield City Directory Shelf Access
The Bergenfield Public Library is at 50 W Clinton Avenue. Its main number is 201-387-4040, and the archives route reference questions to extension 2832 or reference@bergenfieldlibrary.org. Listed hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., with seasonal exceptions. Ask for the title and year first, then ask whether the item is viewable, copied, or available through the archive.
The local-history collection is under continuing construction. Its search supports keyword, Boolean, and exact queries, with filters for item, file, collection, and tags. A useful research note records the collection title, the search terms, the item identifier, and the edition date.
The Bergenfield collection view is a discovery tool. It does not mean every directory page, introductory key, or companion map has been digitized.
Bergenfield's 1926 Twin Boro Directory
The Twin Boro Directory covers Bergenfield and Dumont, including Haworth and Harrington Park. The finding aid calls it a complete residential directory with large Bergenfield and Dumont maps, official directory material, official lists, and fire-alarm information. Bergenfield Printing Company published the run. Its broad area is important: a result in this publication must be read as a dated listing within the stated multi-place scope.
The Bergenfield digitized 1926 item 1795 supplies visible collection metadata: a 1926 JPG item, a residential-directory subject, the Bergenfield Printing Company, and identifier pg.15. Those are verified catalog facts. The automated review did not produce a sufficiently clear full-page entry to safely transcribe a person's row.
Use the online item to establish the edition and scope, then request a permitted page inspection before relying on a printed line or symbol.
Note: The page identifier supports retrieval of the image item, but it does not identify a full volume or a readable personal entry.
1947 Bergenfield Directory by Street
For Bergenfield, the September 15, 1947 Know Your Bergenfield is a particularly useful bridge between name-first and address-first work. The finding aid describes alphabetical and residential-by-street listings, plus a map, fire-alarm information, town officials, organizations, churches, a classified business section, and a historical sketch. That combination makes the volume a historical snapshot with several sections, not a current list of Bergenfield residents.
Bergenfield Directory Community Runs
The 1977 Redbook is a Chamber of Commerce pamphlet with municipal, school, transit, voting, recreation, organization, church, map, parking, and borough-directory material. The 1996-1997 Community Source Directory reaches Bergenfield, Dumont, and New Milford with community information and white, green, and yellow pages. Later Yellow Book editions cover Bergenfield, Dumont, and New Milford and combine community and reference sections.
These later Bergenfield publications can place an institution, service, or neighborhood context in its printed period. They are not interchangeable with the earlier residential volumes, and no page should be read as a present-day individual listing.
A title search should keep the place range in view. The Community Source and Yellow Book material reaches nearby municipalities, so a Bergenfield directory question may need a town filter before two similar street names or organizations are treated as one place. Preserve the cover title and the relevant section label in the research note.
Bergenfield City Directory Timeline
The identified Bergenfield publications show useful windows rather than an unbroken series. This short timeline separates cataloged holdings from any assumption that a directory appeared every year.
- 1926-1927: Bergenfield's Twin Boro Directory documents a residential run with maps and official lists for Bergenfield and nearby places.
- 1947: Bergenfield's Know Your Bergenfield combines alphabetical and residential-by-street listings with a map and local reference sections.
- 1977: Bergenfield's Redbook supplies a borough and community reference snapshot.
- 1996-1997: Bergenfield's Community Source Directory broadens to Bergenfield, Dumont, and New Milford.
- 1999 and 2003-2004: Bergenfield's Yellow Book editions provide later multi-town community and reference material.
The online County Clerk land-record index begins much later, in 1970. For a property question outside an identified directory year, a dated deed or archival catalog can provide a separate historical anchor, but neither fills a missing city-directory edition.
Reading a Bergenfield Directory Record
A Bergenfield archive catalog page is not a readable sample entry. The Bergenfield 1926 item verifies the title, publisher, year, format, identifier, and residential-directory subject, but it does not safely verify the format of every printed line. Review a legible page in person or through a permitted high-resolution image before interpreting a name, street notation, symbol, or abbreviation.
| Verified from item 1795 | 1926 date, Bergenfield Printing Company, JPG format, pg.15 identifier, and historical residential-directory scope. |
|---|---|
| Printed name format | Not verified from a legible sample entry. |
| Street or address notation | Not verified from a legible sample entry. |
| Symbols and abbreviations | No complete introductory key was captured. |
| Household descriptors | Not verified from a legible sample entry. |
- Residential-by-street listing
- A portion arranged by street rather than a surname. The 1947 volume is described as having one.
- Alphabetical listing
- A name-first portion that can lead a researcher to a dated printed entry.
- Abbreviation key
- An explanatory page that may appear in a volume's opening matter. Its contents must be checked in the actual edition.
Bergenfield Directory Companion Sources
Bergenfield directories work best beside a second dated source. The library finding aid describes Crossroads BHS yearbooks from 1943 through 2018 in nearly complete runs, Twin Boro News material, local maps, photographs, clippings, and a 1784 census manuscript. The library archive is the starting point for reference help with those holdings.
For a physical setting in Bergenfield, the Sanborn sheet index identifies Bergenfield map years of 1912, 1923, and 1928. A Sanborn map can show the mapped use of a building in its own year. It does not identify everyone associated with that address.
The Bergenfield Library archives page identifies the local-history reference route behind the archive view.
Archive and map material can test dates and address labels, especially when a surname appears more than once in a historical volume. Cross-reference the edition's map, publication year, and place range before carrying an address from one source into another.
Note: Archive material should be cited by its own date and format before it is used to distinguish similar historical directory entries.
Bergenfield Directory Research at BCHS
The Bergen County Historical Society Library & Archives adds city and telephone directory guides, family histories, manuscripts, church and cemetery records, maps, newspapers, photographs, and indexed collections. It is available by appointment at the Philip J. Ciarco Jr. Learning Center, 355 Main Street, Room 124, Hackensack. Contact the library before a visit, especially when a directory question also needs a map, church record, or cemetery index.
For Bergenfield research, the regional collection is a useful place to test a surname, institution, or dated place against other historical evidence. A matching surname still needs a second anchor such as a street, a parent, a date range, or a map reference.
The historical society's library page describes the appointment-based collections and research setting.
Its manuscript and directory holdings are a companion route when the Bergenfield shelf cannot answer a date or identity question by itself.
Bergenfield Directory Historical Names
Historical name note. The borough's history says an 1873 railroad ticket used “Bergen Fields,” a label that became Bergenfield. Earlier material may also use Schraalenburgh or South Schraalenburg. Search those forms separately in older maps, church, cemetery, deed, and directory collections rather than assuming a modern place name appears in every catalog.
The 1996 Bergenfield Street Names item can help explain an older road label. It is a street-name history, not a complete official renumbering table. Note: A historical place-name match is a research lead, not proof that two records describe the same household.
Tracing Households in Bergenfield Directories
A careful Bergenfield household trail records what each dated publication actually says and what it does not. Use the city directories to create a sequence of historical observations, then test that sequence against maps, yearbooks, church or cemetery material, and public archival records. The absence of a name can reflect a missing volume, a changed spelling, a different edition scope, or an unlisted household.
- Identify the earliest confirmed directory title and page for the surname or street.
- Record the edition date, exact spelling, publication scope, and any map or section reference.
- Check the next identified Bergenfield city directory run rather than assuming an annual volume exists.
- Compare the historical street with the 1996 Street Names item, maps, or a County Clerk legal description when labels differ.
- Use a census, yearbook, church, cemetery, or newspaper source only as another dated record, then preserve its citation separately.
For a current address-keyed record trail, use the Bergenfield street directory rather than extending a historical publication beyond its date. Note: Keep page images and citation details with any conclusion, because a later transcription can lose the edition context that makes a directory useful.