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21 November 2011

Did They Move--Or Not?

There is a good chance that within the next year, my address will change even though my residence will not. When the post office closes, we'll have a different address even though we never really moved at all. In fact our new post office will be in a different county.

Is it possible that your ancestor's address changed even though she never moved at all?

4 comments:

  1. Good tip. I have an ancestor who has at least 2 different house numbers on the same street. I think that the number just changed...but is there a way for me to find out for sure?

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  2. I researched city directories for the block where I live. During WW II several houses had two numbers indicating that they housed more than one family. House numbers are quite fluid over time.

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  3. The genealogy of towns is a very important concept to understand. Here in eastern Massachusetts we have experienced many break-away daughter towns formed mostly when one section of town was at a distance and wanted its own government. I have relatives that were born and died in the same house but changed their address from (east) Abington to Rockland in 1874. This meant I had to know & visit 2 different town halls to collect their vital records. Other towns on Cape Cod with English town names have daughter towns named for important citizens i.e. (Mr) Dennis from Yarmouth, (Mr) Brewster from Harwich, (Mr) Bourne from Sandwich.

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  4. When the 911-Emergency system was implemented some years ago, addresses for many people, especially those in rural areas, changed. The county roads were named or numbered and residences were numbered. It was a major problem learning all the new addresses.

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