Which House was Grandpa in?

As I was choosing a new subject I realized I skipped over an important question on the census, the house number.  The number of the house has been on the census from 1850 until 1950.  There are two reasons this often overlooked detail is important.

The Precise Location

One is to correctly identify the person or family you are referring to when writing or collaborating with other family historians.  The name on the census may have an unusual spelling, or perhaps the handwriting is particularly bad.  Perhaps you are unsure about the name and asking others for their input.  Giving the house number or family number can help clarify the line being considered.  This is especially important when you are writing for a publication.  Giving the house number and family number eliminates any question which entry is the subject.

Where They Were Located

The house number can also help you identify the place your ancestors lived.  This is helpful from 1880 when enumerators were instructed to give the street names the house was on until 1950.  Like any other question on the census, whether the street name was recorded depended on how well the enumerator did their job.  Street names can be hit and miss on the 1880 census, but by 1900 they were recorded regularly.  The thing to remember is that often enumerators recorded the street name when they started on that street, not on every page. 

When you find your ancestors in the census, if the street name is not on that page, look at the previous pages to see if you can find their street.  Don’t quit too soon. You may have to go back several pages, especially if your ancestors were living in a rural area.  Once you find a street or road they were on, keep going backward until you find a new street.  Now you have an intersection.

Once you have that intersection, go back to the page where you first found the street your ancestor lived on and make a note of the house number.  Then go forward through the census until you find where the enumerator changed streets and make a note of that house number. 

Once you have these two house numbers, go back to your ancestor’s entry in the census and find their house number.  Now you know approximately what position they were in along their street.

Armed with this information, you can consult a map covering the same location and time period as the census, like those at  https://www.davidrumsey.com/home to estimate where your ancestors were living.  It won’t give you an exact location, but you will be able to get close.

At Heroes of the Past we excel at finding the location where your ancestors lived.  Contact us today!  You may find Grandpa’s home is still there!