How to Find Where Your Ancestor Lived

As I get further along in my research and in learning how to research properly, I find that I have a deeper desire to find out more about my ancestors' lives.  Sometimes they live very short lives and don't leave a lot of records.  Other times you have a strong connection to a relative and want to find out more about where and how they lived and possibly visit that place.

My paternal side of the family has lived in Western New York since the early to mid-1800s, most of them farmers that moved west from Connecticut or Massachusetts.  One such family I was researching, the Kilbys, did just that about 1856.  I have figured this date from one of the sons being married in early 1856 but having a child in New York in 1857.  The entire family shows up together in the 1860 census in Mansfield, New York.

I started to look for land records or maps for this town and found a great land map from 1856 right before they would have arrived.  Here is a snapshot of it:¹

This may not seem exciting because the family name Kilby, is not there. This is because they did not own land, and they most likely weren't quite here when this map was made. What is exciting is what happens when we find out who their neighbors are in 1860 only four years after this map was made.

I looked at the neighbors that had the highest real estate value and those names included Eddy, Huggins, Taylor, Stone, and Smith, right down the line in the census!² From this information, I knew that the Kilby family lived somewhere northwest of the Jas. M. Smith farm just from the placement on the map and how it correlated with the census record.

I did however have one more piece of information that narrowed it down even further. There was a news article about Chauncy's death that said he worked for the Huggins and that the Huggin's mill was only four rods from his home. Notice on the map that there is a building right next to J Huggins house that has no line going to it? I think this is where the Kilby family lived!

Next up was to see what buildings may still be around. Turns out not very many but there is a house right where the Huggins appears on the map, right under the 13.

I dug into the address and the public access records go back to 1940 to a person with a last name other than Huggins. I looked into this further and James Huggins died in 1867 and his son James had moved to Pennsylvania by 1870. The Kilbys had moved to the next town over by 1870.

There are similar land maps based on surveys from the mid-1800s for many locations that you can find on the Library of Congress website.  See if you can find where one of your ancestors lived!


¹Geil, Samuel, S. K Godshalk, J. M Tiffany, and Robert Pearsall Smith. Map of Cattaraugus Co., New York: from the county records & actual surveys. Fredonia, Chautauque Co., N.Y.: Publisher J.M. Tiffany, 1856. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2013593220/.
²"United States Census, 1860," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSH-9Z39?cc=1473181&wc=7QPF-1SK%3A1589422212%2C1589431336%2C1589423963 : 24 March 2017), New York > Cattaraugus > Mansfield > image 23 of 32; from "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).