City directories beat online maps for old neighborhood research

I spent 3 hours last Tuesday trying to find where my great-grandparents lived in Pittsburgh around 1912. Google Maps had nothing, and every ancestry site wanted a subscription. Then a reference librarian at the Carnegie Library showed me their city directory collection. Those things list every resident by name and address, plus their occupation. I found their row house on Wabash Street in under 20 minutes. Why does everyone reach for a screen first when the paper records are sitting right there? Anyone else had better luck with physical archives than with the internet?

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