Who lived in this house?

[alan.h]

Both my son and are are keen to locate the people who have lived in our houses before us. One house was built in 1911 and the other in the 1880s. I've done a lot of research on my own family where I am searching for specific people but I'm wondering where to begin in looking for the occupants of the houses. I've tried typing in the addresses on Ancestry but am just getting lots of random records for people in Broadstairs rather than the specific address. Any help or advice would be welcome!

[CaroleW]

You can search all censuses by address on FindMyPast.  Ancestry is limited to 1881 and 1911 censuses

The 1939 register can also be searched by address

Bear in mind that there is a 10yr gap between censuses so you will only get the name of whoever was there at that particular time - people moved around more frequently in those days. 

[ShaunJ]

Apart from censuses and the 1939 Register:

1. Newspaper archives
2. Electoral rolls
3. Google
4. Use elements of the address in "exact" key word searches on Ancestry and FindMyPast
5. Land Registry
6. Trade/Street Directories
7. Tom's wills (this was a useful resource but it seems to be under new management and no longer so easy to use)
8. Local authority planning database
9. Local History Centre resources - newspaper cuttings etc

[alan.h]

Thanks

[Chris Doran]

I'd start with street directories up to WW2 and electoral rolls thereafter. Your local studies library/archives will probably have the best collection but many are yet to reopen after lockdown. Ancestry has some directories, plus phone books, and a web search for historical directories kent will find more, including the Leicester University collection. The easiest ones to use go street-by-street, listing every house. Others, like Kelly's county-wide ones, are ordered by residents' names and you have to scan the lists, which may not include every house. Be aware that renaming and renumbering streets was a popular pastime among local council officials, so check on the street-by-street directories against landmarks like road junctions, pubs, churches, etc. Also, if the house had a name, not a number, new owners sometimes brought their old house name with them.

When you get to recent years, I have electoral rolls on disk for 1992 to 2016, but  ask me by PM as that's in the potentially living people era.