Do you keep track of every address your ancestor had? Most genealogical software packages allow the tracking of residential addresses, but a spreadsheet or table in a word processing document can also be used to organize address details. Converting addresses to their modern equivalents (they do change over time) can give you a pictorial representation of their migration or lack thereof.

Addresses can be particularly helpful for urban dwellers as moves may potentially mean the family attended a new church or school (even if for a short time). Changes in address can mean the family went from being a renter to a property owner or vice versa.

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  1. A change of address could also mean that the village/town/city changed house numbers and/or street names. For example, Chicago did an extensive remap in 1909. So my grandparents “moved” without having to pack a thing! And when I was a child living in a small town, our family went from having a PO Box number to a house number + street style address. Once more in the 1970s living in a different location, our house number went from 4 digits to 5 based on our distance (nearly 40 miles) from State and Madison in Chicago. That change was to make it easier for volunteer fire departments to find addresses.

    • Good reminder that not every change in address was the result of a change in residence. In the rural area where I grew up, the vague “rural route #” address went to an address to facilitate 911 responses and was based on our distance from the southern county line and the western county line.

  2. As towns grow they acquire farms that were once rural areas. In the case on our family, in the 1870 US Census they lived on the Columbus Waterloo Road and eventually the Waterloo Road, Second Ward, and finally Waterloo Street, 2nd Ward. It is fascinating to see this!

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