Addresses can change even if your ancestor’s home never did. Street names can change house numbers can change. Using addresses as a key to tying people together is an excellent genealogical tool (in areas and time periods that have addresses), but keep in mind they can vary over time.

Determine if and when the city/town where your relative lived had any renaming or renumbering of the streets. Sometimes these changes were citywide and sometimes they were only for certain neighborhoods or areas.

Even rural ancestors can have this happen. Rural route numbers change and the adoption of a 911-address system can create modern differences as well.

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  1. I have several gg grandparents who lived in early Chicago who never moved but whose street names and house number changed once or twice. When I was planning a trip to drive around Chicago and take pictures of the locations and possibly original houses/apartments, I had to look up lots of streets. Then found “histories” of street names and what, why and when the names had changed. Subsequently found all of the locations and most of the original structures back as far as 1860’s. I know that’s not “early” when you look at the East coast states and cities, but it is for Chicago.

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