Ancestors who rented property can be difficult to locate. Real estate leases are typically not recorded and they are rarely passed down from one generation to the next. If the lease was paid and the family moved on, there’s often little reason for a person to keep the record.

There are some ways to potentially determine where your ancestor lived. For urban individuals, city directories and census records may provide a residential address. In addition to these items, consider any record that may also list an address, particularly vital records, death notices, obituaries, etc. There are home sources that may list addresses as well, including letters, newspaper clippings, and the like.

For rural ancestors most of the sources for city dwellers can be used, although directories are often less frequent and census records are less likely to provide addresses. It can also be worth looking at probate and estate records for ancestors with any sort of business (including farming) to see if leases and rental properties are mentioned.

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  1. When I did research in Milwaukee, WI, I discovered addresses had been changed/renamed. Fortunately, the library had a document listing old and new addresses. I found where my great-grandparents lived after they arrived from Bohemia in the 1870s.

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