Looking thru some old family photos, I ran across someone I spent some childhood with, but have lost contact with years ago. None of my family is alive to assist in a search, but just for kicks, I would like to find my friend. She would be my age, so likely alive.
I have very little to start with. What I do know is the approximate dates the family lived at a particular address (street, number, county, state). I have a first name, but not the family’s last name, although I know it was spanish and I would probably recognize it if I saw it. I know the approximate ages and number of family members, and they lived at the same location from ca. 1943-1952.
I realize that just having a first & last name of the head of household is merely the start of a long research project, but it’s all I’ve got to go on.
It occurred to me that if I could see the census for 1950, drill down to state/county/town level and peruse the street by street data, that even if it didn’t enumerate the exact house number, I could find the name. A spanish surname in a three block long street would stand out in that neighborhood. Data for an exact household would be even better.
But is such detailed data available online or on a CD? I am unable to find such. Can any geneology buffs suggest a source?
Alternatively, are old phone books available in digital text form? A graphic page wouldn’t work, but if I could search a text copy of a 1948 phonebook for the county and find all residents of a particular street, I could probably find what I am looking for.
Census data such as what you’re seeking isn’t made available to the public until 72 years after the census was conducted. The most recent census available to search is the 1930 census. The 1940 Census will be available in 2012 and the 1950 Census will be available in 2022.
If you live in the community that you’re searching, your public library may have a genealogy section which may contain old phone books.
That’s what I was afraid of-- the data is available only when it is useless for those alive now.
Unfortunately, I don’t live close by, which is why online or CD data is the only practical method, and even then, it would have to be text so it was searchable.
A reverse directory (by street) would be useful, but I imagine those are even rarer.
Is there any effort to digitize and OCR old phonebooks? This would make them so much more useful and more widely available. Unlike handwritten or newspaper data, phonebook text should be OCR-able with a high degree of accuracy since it is so uniform.
Sounds like you could find the house on a map. And you have the approximate dates that they lived there. And you would recognize the last name if you saw it.
Some GIS systems will give you access to sales records/deeds of properties. And many are on line now.
First, Google County Name County GIS. If you find an online system, it should allow you to zoom into the area/property in question. From that point you can choose an identify tool and click on the property to get the current information. This will also provide you with some sort of property ID that you could use to help your search through the County Clerk. A grantee/grantor search should be pretty easy to do either online, or by dropping a dime to the Clerks office.
This may only get you the last name. But it’s a start, and worth trying.
This assumes that they owned and where not renting.
I’m sure someone such as Waloon is the best professional person-chaser on the boards. \But, assuming you know the exact street address, you might go online and email the local library in that town. They have reference librarians who can look at city directories and tell you just who lived at that address in a given year. I’ve had tremendous luck doing this in many instances.
Good ideas, all. I am familiar with the GIS/County maps, records, etc. in my current location, and use those tools daily, so I’ll try to find the equivalent in the other county.
However, our county only just began digitizing deeds and related records and very few are online, none before 1995. Similarly, tax & ownership records are available online only for the past 15 years or so. Earlier than that requires a physical search at the courthouse, and that’s when the charges start. Considering the poor chances of this exercise reaching its desired conclusion, I’d hate to spend any out of pocket bux.
Online maps should get me the specific house address, since I can coordinate from across the street, an address that I know exactly. As far as being renters or owners, I suspect they were owners, at least I hope so.
That might be a place to look. Most School Districts keep their records for a long time. Especially if it involves graduation from a school. Contact the school district, and try to get a copy of the roster for a classroom that you were both in – you ought to be able to recognize the name from there.
From online county maps, I have been able to get the parcel and street numbers of the property. Interestingly, the street seems to have undergone a renumbering, as my old house’s last digit was changed (I’m sure I have the correct property, as it coordinates perfectly with others surrounding it, and none have been subdivided or altered in shape or size).
But the county records don’t show deeds online. Nevertheless, thru a lucky break and some more old family records, I now have a complete name and an additional address where they moved to in 1951. But the address is a PO box and since it’s a girl’s name, it may have changed. I guess contacting the school in the new location might be the next place to go, because she probably entered 1st grade there. The possibility of her continuing thru high school and being found in grad records seems slim. Elementary records aren’t as available as high school, are they? Especially since I can’t prove I am a family member.
I also have her mother’s full name, but it’s probably a 50/50 chance she is still alive and even her name might have changed. If I could get to property deeds of 1950, I could probably get the father’s name.
Oh, well – it’s an intellectual exercise. It’s not like I have some inheritance to get to a deserving recipient, just a desire to solve a puzzle.