How to find out how an old street name and number translate to a modern address

[andrewalston]

In country districts it was very common to refer to the name of a block of cottages rather than the road, and numbers would be within the block rather than along the road. My parents once bought a house and it was six months later when they found out the name of the lane!

The same applies in some towns, with a named terrace on a long road having its own numbering, as though it was a side street.

It can be difficult to follow the enumerator's route, because the map may not account for newly-built properties even though dates seem to line up. Sometimes you need to look at previous censuses and work out "landmarks" - people who were less likely to move. It's how I found out that the place my gggf died  in 1874 had been demolished as a slum by 1881 and that "New Market Street" had been built in its place.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  And then you have the enumerator who, in 1851, helpfully arranged one of my villages in alphabetical order!
   The villages I am talking about really didn't have house numbers, in fact some still don't.

[Comberton]

With Ancestry it will not allow you to go on to the next area by using the arrow for next page but if you click on the icon to the left of the number at the bottom, i.e. 7 of 7, you can go on through further areas.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thanks for that tip, but unfortunately they are in alphabetical order, so rather than the next village geographically, I get one at the other end of the county.

[cbcarolyn]

I am not sure what you mean.  The menus/breadcrumbs not sure how to describe it are county, then area, then area within that and lastly districts, you can click on the districts at the end.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I couldn't find the menu you mentioned but I have it now. Thank you.

[cbcarolyn]

fab, with small villages, it doesn't take that long to look through, often finding all the family members along the way.

[coombs]

I guess the enumerator may have took the census schedules in a random fashion by doing one terrace, crossing the road to do 2 houses then back across the road to do the pub. If your family are listed near a pub or a house with a distinctive name, or the church/shop that can help pinpoint where they lived.

I had a relative born in London and the address on the birth cert said " 2 Southampton Terrace, Islington". Took me ages to track it down, as I found that Southampton Terrace was a row of houses, not a street, but the street was Upper Southampton Street. However if precise info was given in the records, we'd not have as much fun finding out the further info.

[cbcarolyn]

I did the census in the 80s and had to find a lot of 'wooden huts' where people were living in Dobbs Weir, the enumerators had (and will still have?) the responsibility of finding all the properties in the area, all the 22b and upstairs flats etc tucked around corners.