Residential Clues When There Is No Address

Those of us looking for rural ancestors sometimes ignore the census information regarding addresses that’s contained in the far left hand side of more recent census records (1930 and 1940 for example). That would be a mistake.

I located an uncle in the 1940 census for Lima Township in Adams County, Illinois. The “address” indicates he was living on the Adams-Hancock County line road. That was a good clue which told me that he lived along the extreme northern edge of Lima Township.