Family historians who want to learn more about how an ancestor lived often look to where they lived, specifically the home or homes they occupied during their lives. Depending upon the location and time period, a well thought out search strategy can yield amazing results.
Many genealogists and family historians hit a brick wall when trying to locate an ancestor’s home. This “speed bump” is not due to a lack of resources or records. Instead, the wall is self-constructed due to assumptions made about the home, its date, and its location.
Remember not to let “presentism” creep into your search process. What you know about 21st or 20th-century homes will vastly differ from how 19th and 18th century homes were sold and acquired.
Factors to consider when searching for an ancestral home
Here are factors you need to consider prior to the search process:
- There was no house number. Even up to the 1980s, rural homes in the United States did not have house numbers to identify location. It wasn’t until rural communities installed 911 emergency call centers that there was a need for house numbers. Prior to that time simply writing a name, street name, city, state, and postal code on a piece of mail insured delivery. And locals would often use landmarks to give directions as in “Make a right at Smith Road, go around the curve past Williams’ dairy farm and it will be the third house on the right.” The same is true in the rural areas of many European countries.
- Watch for address and street name changes. As cities and towns grew, it was not uncommon to “reset the grid,” meaning entire streets were re-numbered. One example is the resetting of the “master grid” for the city of Chicago in 1909. In addition, over time changes were made to street names both to honor people as well as when certain names were no longer in favor. During World War I, many cities changed the names of streets that sounded “German” to something more American. A good way to trace these changes is to consult city or business directories which often listed street name changes at the end of the directory.
- Real estate as an industry didn’t really exist until the 1930s. While there were “agents” who would help locate a property for a buyer, actual real estate firms were not very common in the US before World War II. Instead homes would be listed by the seller in the newspaper, usually in a real estate column of the classifieds or, if part of an estate settlement, in the legal notices section. In addition, you might find larger ads for estate auctions in which not only contents are up for sale, but also the home and surrounding land.
- Economic and social standing. One factor to consider in your search is the economic and social standing of your ancestor. Those with a much higher standing will likely be easier to find through newspapers, legal records, deeds and bills of sale. Those lower on the rungs likely will have rented their abode and there will be very few records or documentation available.
- Most property was sold to someone the owner knew. Again, with a lack of real estate agencies until the late 1940s, property for sale was not even advertised especially in rural areas. If a property owner was looking to sell off some land, they wanted to make sure they knew their new neighbor. If you review deeds and bills of sale for surrounding properties, you’ll either find a relative as the new owner or a member of the F.A.N. Club (Friends, Associates, and Neighbors) of the owner.
Records that contain information about ancestral homes
While you might immediately gravitate towards property records, information about a home or property can be found in a variety of records. You really will have to do that “reasonably exhaustive search” in order to make progress. Here is a list of record sets and the research methodology to use:
- Newspapers including obituaries, advertisements, and legal notices. Newspapers are the favored record set for most researchers since addresses can be found in a variety of sections. Remember that until the 1930s most funerals started at the home of the deceased and processed to a church or synagogue. Check legal notices for information for estates in probate, estate sales, and real estate listings. In addition, auctions and sales would be listed in larger ads in the newspaper.
- Vital records including birth, marriage, and death records. Depending upon the location and the time period, birth records could include the home address of the parents. The same for marriage records which could include address information not only for the bride and groom but for parents and witnesses as well. Death certificates would include not only the address of the deceased, but where the death occurred as well as addresses for the information, attending physician, and funeral home. As part of death records, wills and probate records included address information for the decedent as well as those inheriting property or money during the estate settlement.
- Yearbooks including high school, college, and professional. Academic yearbooks became popular in the early 1900s and for seniors graduating from the school you can often find a home address for each person. Professional yearbooks were produced by fraternal societies as well as professional organizations such as medical and dental associations. Information included addresses for new members, for deceased members via obituaries, and even for the bride and groom in wedding announcements.
- City and business directories. Prior to telephone directories, city and business directories were utilized to contact residents of the community. These books were published annually and were given away free by merchants or could be purchased by residents. Often you will find a list of street name changes as well as information on any reconfiguration of the address grid for the town or city.
- Census records including state and federal. Addresses were not listed on federal and state censuses until the late 19th century. And for rural locations only a road name or number would be listed. Be sure to check state census records since they often contain more detail than federal census records.
- Deeds and bills of sale. Local and state governments would require that deeds and bills of sale be filed with the local clerk’s office. These documents can be found at archives and repositories as well as with tax records since some locales would tax land transactions.
- Legal description of land. Absent an actual address and way before GPS, in order to purchase or sell land the process required a legal description. A survey was required to determine the shape, size, and location of the land in the legal description. Legal descriptions are usually found in tract and plat books, deeds, bills of sale as well as legal notices published in newspapers.
- Gazetteers. In the late 1800s, several publishers produced bound books called “gazetteers” which were often purchased through subscriptions. The books contained a history of the town, important facts and statistics, as well as “biographies” of residents which were paid for and supplied by the subscribers. While these bios tended towards exaggeration and contained “half-truths” you can get a better idea as to where residents lived and determine their address.
- Maps including tract and plat books and Sanborn fire maps. Also in the late 1800s, maps of small towns and villages would list the owner of each home and business. Sometimes these were included in gazetteers (see above). Tract and plat books were ledgers used by the federal government to track who was awarded land and who purchased land. Sanborn fire maps are detailed maps noting the date of construction, the materials used, location etc. to assist insurance companies in determining insurance rates and reserves needed to cover losses.
- Public land states and homesteading. Many states in the US are considered “public land states,” meaning that a person could qualify to own a specific amount of land over a set time period if they made improvements to the land. The Homestead Act of 1862 was one of several different homesteading initiatives, and records include applications, documentation of improvements including witness statements from neighbors, as well as certificate deeds transferring the land from the federal or state government to the new owner.
- Military bounties. As a way to reward participants in certain military conflicts in the US, veterans were awarded a land bounty in addition to or in lieu of monetary compensation. While there are some military bounty records, also look at muster documents and discharge documents for bounty information.
- Diaries and letters. These records are helpful no matter the economic or social status of your ancestor, but they are more important for those on the lower rungs of society and those living in rural locations. To avoid a common mistake when noting locations, remember that road and street names change over time. Note the date of the diary entry or letter and research any changes. In addition, if an address is simply described through landmarks, you’ll need to determine the address based on those landmarks (and hopefully they still exist!). If you don’t have diaries and letters, contact local libraries, archives, and repositories and inquire. Also ask if they have “vertical files” which are often “catch alls” for a variety of family history records.
Staying informed about ancestral homes
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the vast amount of information available online, especially information used for family history research. So how do you keep on top of new information without having to perform searches every week or every month? The smart savvy genealogists rely upon alerts - meaning they make sure that a website or search engine alerts them via email when new information is posted about an ancestor or ancestral home.
- Sign up at real estate listing websites. Instead of searching for that ancestry address every week, sign up for an alert based on that address at a variety of real estate websites such as Redfin, Zillow, and Realtor.com. You’ll receive an email when the home goes up for sale and possibly view images of the current interior of the home.
- Sign up for Google Alerts. If you find yourself performing a weekly search on the Internet for the address or location of an ancestral home, there’s an easier way. Using Google Search as an example, you can create an “alert” when new information meeting that search criteria is indexed on Google. Google Alerts is a free tool that allows you to customize an alert in terms of keywords, language, country, and more. To get the most out of Google Alerts, make sure you have a Google account or a Gmail account and have search results sent to you either on a daily or weekly basis.
Using a variety of alert systems you can make the Internet work for you and free your time up to search for ancestors rather than perform frequent searches week after week.
While your ancestor’s home might seem impossible to find, a successful research requires preparation and developing a methodology that takes into account the time period, location, as well as economic and social standing of your ancestor. You will likely have to research many different record sets and perform a “reasonably exhaustive search” to find that ancestral home. But once you do, imagine the information you can add to your research of your family history!
Explore more about ancestral homes
- Street Names and Numbers: Grid Changes, Renaming, and More by Thomas MacEntee at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Using Maps in Genealogical Research, webinar by Sara A. Scribner, CG on Legacy Family Tree Webinars
- Genealogy Cheat Sheets by Thomas MacEntee at Genealogy Bargains Blog