I am the only person in my immediate family interested in family history, genealogy or research. However, all of us are interested in playing Can You Top This, or I remember when we lived in…, Do You remember when Aunt Nancy… those kinds of games. For us, since we lived in so many places, just coming up with the addresses can be invigorating.
Google Earth and Google Maps both call to you to look up those addresses and check out the houses. Usually I remember where the driveway was, on which side of the house the kitchen was, or where my room was, or what the back yard looked like, which trees were the best climbing trees, that kind of thing. But the exact number of the street address isn’t quite as good. and sometimes the street name won’t even come to the fore. This is valuable data for searching the 1940 census which will be open in a week.
Are You Ready for the 1940 Census with the Needed Street Addresses
You can always ask another relative, generally those older than you may have known the addresses and just need to remember; those younger than you may have better memories but were too young to have known the addresses. Check with your family first.
This 1937 Middlesboro, Pineville and Harlan, Ky phonebook was scanned and put on the Internet by Phillip A. Walker. It also includes Cumberland Gap and New Tazewell, Tennessee. I am ready for the 1940 census, it lists my grandfather Fred C. Henritze on Mound St. in Harlan.
If you need to find an address for the census research you want to do next week, try some other avenues:
- Federal Census
- Deed Records
- City and County Directories
- Telephone Directories
- Draft cards and registrations
- Driver’s licenses, pet licenses, bike licenses
- Treasurer, Auditor and Voting Registrar records
- Letters and cards with envelopes
- Old Library Cards
- School records
- Utility records
- Church record
The last four are especially helpful for renters who won’t have deeds in the courthouse and those whose time spent at one address may have been less than a year. Dog licenses may also be a good place to look for families that moved a lot. The more you move the more likely the dog might get lost, so preventative measures may have been taken. Why I might try the Dog License Bureau before the Auditor or Treasurer, the amount of mail one gets compared to the other.
