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I Know the City/Town But Don’t Know the Street Address Where My Ancestor Lived in 1940
To locate your ancestor in the 1940 Census, you need a name index or know the Enumeration District where your ancestor lived.

Check to see if the state where your ancestor lived has been indexed. LINK TO LIST

If the state index has not yet been completed, find your ancestor in a city directory to locate an address. Then, determine the correct Enumeration District number for the address.

Follow these stops to locate a street address for your ancestor:

Step 1 Locate Your Ancestor in a City Directory
Your ancestor may be listed in a city directory. A city directory is an alphabetical listing of residents and their street addresses in a city or town.

City directories online:


 * Ancestry.com - ($)

City directories not online can be found at:


 * City Directories of the USA - This website has a clickable map of all known city directories in the country and where they are located. This is an ongoing project and is not complete.
 * Public Libraries - Contact the public library in your ancestors town or city to see if they have a city directory for 1940 or years close to that date (1939 or 1941). Contact information for Public Libraries in the United States.
 * University Libraries - Contact the University Library closest to your ancestor's town to see if they have a city directory for 1940 or years close to that date (1939 or 1941). Contact information for University Libraries in the United States.

More information about City Directories

Telephone Books - a substitute Some larger cities stopped producing city directories by 1940 and instead created telephone books. Unfortunately, only a portion of the residents had telephones.

Cities with 1940 telephone books:


 * Chicago, IL - located at the Newberry Library in Chicago
 * New York City, NY - free, images online
 * Philadelphia, PA - located at the Philadelphia Public Library

If there is no city directory available for the city or town you are searching, use a substitute source to locate an address.

Step 2 Find the Cross Streets for Your Ancestor's Address
Search for your ancestor’s street address using a mapping website such as:


 * Google Maps
 * MapQuest
 * Bing Maps

Locate the major cross streets near your ancestor's address and write them down.

Step 3 Use SteveMorse.org to Determine the Enumeration District

 * Go to Steve Morse's website.


 * Use the drop down lists to choose the state, county, and city or town where your ancestor lived.


 * Fill in the street address of your ancestor. If the "number" and "address" fields are crossed, this indicates the website does not have your city or town and requires a different process.  LINK HERE.
 * and the cross streets identified in step two to determine the Enumeration District. The Enumeration District should consist of two numbers separated by a dash with the first number representing the county.


 * Click on the Enumeration District numbers displayed and choose "Get1940 EDtion in the box to see the names of the streets that border that enumeration district.


 * For links to original Enumeration District maps, go to Steve Morse's Website The images are hosted by the National Archives.

Step 4 Use FamilySearch.org to Browse the Images
Do the following:


 * Go to FamilySearch.org.
 * Find the 1940 Census
 * On the Explore the 1940 Census page ADD LINK, type in the state, county, city and Enumeration District into the available fields.
 * Click on the set of images.
 * Search the names on each census page for your ancestor. Be sure to use the arrows in the top right corner to move to the next image in the enumeration district