Close to Home: Neighbors on the Lane (Update)

Photo from the family collection of Hannah (Champlin)  and William Broadfoot
Privately held by Midge Frazel, 2016 

Neighbors on the Lane

In this "Close to Home" series of blog posts, it would be remiss to not use this great photo of my paternal grandfather Thomas Broadfoot wearing his kilt, standing proudly with this neighbor lady identified as "Mrs. Titterington" on the reverse side. He draped part of the wool over her shoulder and it really stands out. 

The 1924 (1923-1924) Rhode Island City Directory of  Westerly and Pawcatuck gives me list of those people living on Bowling Lane in Bradford. 

Not all city directories do this but I wish they did because it gives us genealogist  a snapshot of the FAN (Friends and Neighbors) that we need to add flavor to our genealogy stories about our families. Called a "House Directory", this feature gives us a alphabetical street listing and the name of the head of household for each number house with an explanation of this section of the city directory. 

This a a crop of a page with the section of Bowling Lane that I found by using my grandfather's name. I see names that I heard mentioned over the years when the "grown-up talked. Remember, these are duplex houses so some are very close neighbors and walls were probably thin. See the Titterington family? I know that #97 and #99 are duplex neighbors.

Update: Because I was unsure about which Titterington family was friends with my family, I have found two descendants of a different Titterington family that can help me straighten this out. This is Christina, wife of David Titterinton.

They tell me that the Titterington family at 71 Bowling Lane is not the family in some of my photos. Blog post coming soon...

I'll be spending more time with this particular directory because of this interesting feature.