House history · from the original census pages
Send us an address. We find the house in the census, page by page, and tell you every household that lived there in 1950, 1940, 1930 and back as far as it goes: their names, their work, where they were born, what they paid in rent. Then when it was built, what the old maps show, and the house's story on one page to frame.
$49, by email within 10 days. Full refund if we can't find the house in the census. A good gift for a new homeowner, and a closing gift agents can order without a call.
Oak Park, Illinois
The one-page timeline, as it comes out of the research. This house's story is below, line by line.
A real one
Ernest Hemingway was born at 339 North Oak Park Avenue in 1899, and the house is a museum today. The Hemingways' part of the story is well told. We wanted to know who came after, so we did what we'd do for your house: found the street in each census, walked the pages house by house, and read the lines for 339.
| House | Dwelling | Name | Relation | Home | Rent | Age | Born |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 339 | 149 | Buehler, Edward J. | Head | R | $160 | 52 | Indiana |
| —, Anne M. | Wife | 48 | Norway |
Rented, at $160 a month. Next door, 333 was owned, valued at $30,000.
Anne came over in 1886. The same household also lists his stepdaughter, a boarder born in Germany, and two lodgers' households.
| House | Name | Relation | Home | Rent | Age | Born | Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 339 | Fischer, Lesley E. | Head | R | $75 | 40 | Kansas | Bookkeeper |
| … and about twenty lodgers |
A bookkeeper of 40 at the head of a house of about twenty lodgers.
Among the lodgers: a woman born in Switzerland, and a family from San Jose.
| House | Dwelling | Name | Relation | Age | Born | Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 339 | 15 | name withheld | Head | 24 | Illinois | Finance |
| name withheld | Wife | 24 | Indiana | Receptionist | ||
| … six roomers |
Nobody home the first time. The enumerator came back later: “Not home, sheet 75, lines 16 thru 23.”
We don't name people who may be living. The roomers included a barber and an electrical engineer born in China.
A family house that became a rooming house: a boarder and lodgers in 1930, about twenty lodgers in 1940, six roomers in 1950.
Why you can't just search the address
When Hemingway was born, this house was 439 North Oak Park Avenue. Today it's 339. Search the old records for 339 and you land on somebody else's house, or on nothing.
Chicago renumbered almost every street in the city in 1909, and plenty of towns did the same. Rural houses often had no number at all, only a road or a route. So the first thing we check is what your house was called back then, from old fire-insurance maps, city directories and the census's own street lists, and only then start reading.
What you get
From 1950 back to the first census your house appears in: who lived there, their ages, where they were born, what they did for work, whether they owned or rented, and the rent or the value they gave.
From the county's property record and the earliest record that shows the house. When they disagree (they often do), we say which one we trust and why.
Fire-insurance maps from the Library of Congress, which drew towns building by building, and old aerial photos, where they cover your street.
The house's timeline, set like the one above, as a print-ready file.
Where the local paper is online, the house's own mentions: a for-rent notice, a wedding in the parlor, a fire, a sale.
The deeds that aren't online, the town's own archive, the historical society: which office, and what to ask for.
As a gift
For a new homeowner, a housewarming, a parent who still lives in the house you grew up in, or the family farmhouse. Agents: order one for each closing. Put the buyers' email and your note on the form and we'll send it to them in your name, or to you to print and hand over with the keys.
Ordered by December 5, it arrives before Christmas.
Order
As far as the house goes. Each census from 1950 back lists every household by street and house number in towns, so if your house stood in 1900, we read 1950, 1940, 1930, 1920, 1910 and 1900. The 1890 census was almost entirely lost in a fire, so the trail jumps from 1900 to 1880, where it continues if the house is that old.
Then the census can't help yet: 1950 is the newest one open to the public, and 1960 opens in 2032. We'd rather tell you that than sell you a thin report, so please only order for a house that stood by 1950. If it turns out it didn't, we refund you.
No. We research the past and never name anyone who may still be living. A 1950 household with young people in it is described, as you see above, without their names.
That's the first thing we check, from old fire-insurance maps, city directories and the census's own street lists. Rural houses are harder because the census often gives a road or route, not a number; we work from the neighbors and the land. If we can't place your house in any census, you get a full refund.
No. It's history, not a title search, and we aren't credentialed historians. Every fact is tied to its record so you can judge it. Where the deeds aren't online, the report names the county office that holds them and what to ask for.
Yes. Tell us on the form who it's for and add a note. We'll send it to them with your note, or to you to print and frame. Ordered by December 5, it arrives before Christmas.
Claude, an AI made by Anthropic, reads the census pages and the other records and writes the history. Patrick White runs the desk, and you can write to either of us. Where the records only suggest something, the report says so.
Anything else: desk@familyhistoryresearch.org. For a person rather than a house, see a family report on one ancestor.