Ever compared who lived at which addresses in a street for all the census years?

[Charney Jo]

If so, how did you go about recording them?

There is one particular street where, I think, most of the houses, in most of the census years, where filled with relatives or people who were to marry in to the family.

I have decided to go through each of the census years and write down who lived in each house. I'm thinking I need an excel sheet with the house numbers down the side and the years across the top columns. But then I thought that maybe there is something (nicer) already in existence.

Has anyone seen anything like this? Or if you have undertaken such research, what did you use?

Thanks if you have any ideas.

[Katarzyna]

There are a few pitfalls to that method depending where and how well established the street is. In my experience I have often found that:
1 - The street numbers were not written down by the enumerator.
2 - If they were numbered then for another census they were not!
3 - Expansion of the road - houses added to the ends of the road or to vacant plots in the middle necessitated re-numbering.
4 - Demolition.

[Charney Jo]

Thanks Kat. They were mostly in the street from 1871-1901 and I think the houses stayed the same, but it was a poor area so there are often up to 3 families per house!

I have started in 1911 (easiest to read) and have already got sidetracked by someone (not my family) who was 25 and a widower. Curious, I checked out and he married the eldest daughter of the other family in the house the next year. They had 2 children. I think this may take me a long time :D

[Gwyn in Kent]

If you are able to, it might be worth checking parish registers for the area.
That way you would pick up changes within the 10 year gap.

There is one particular street in Portsmouth, where my ancestors and close relatives seem to 'hop' from house to house, judging by certificates and census records.

[Charney Jo]

Thanks Gwyn. It was when I was looking at one particular family - that of my 2x gt grandmother who was widowed early but had lots of children - I noticed the family moved around the street, using the addresses at baptisms and wedding certificates. I then noticed that there were lots of related family names in the street. I always find it interesting to find out if relatives married someone who lived next door or in the same house.

I was talking to a relative who said she remembers her gran saying that they would ask their rent collector when one of their daughters got married and, if they were good payers, would get "first dibs" on anything that came up.

I get a feeling that I will be at this project for a while!