Census records can show who lived in the house. A census is taken every 10 years, and the information gathered is available to the public after 72 years. A Look at Cook can help you find what enumeration district and/or ward the building was in from 1870 through 1940 (with the exception of 1890; most of those records were lost in a fire at the National Archives.) The Unified Census ED Finder, created by Steve Morse and Dr. Joel Weintraub, will help you find the enumeration district through 1950.
Many online genealogy sources can help you search records online. Family Search is a free search resource. Microfilm of census records is located at the Newberry Library and the Chicago branch of the National Archives and Records Association. Family Search also offers a guide to United States Census online records. Many of the providers of census records require a subscription, but some are free of charge. The 1940 census and 1950 census can be accessed for free online via the National Archives, for example.
We have a complete collection of Chicago city and telephone directories, dating from 1839 to the present.
When doing research on past addresses, it is important to remember that in 1909, Chicago changed its street numbering system. Street names also changed periodically through Chicago’s history. It may be helpful for you to have both old and new addresses.
Both the city directories and the criss-cross directories have had different publishers over the years. The directories are often known by their publishers' names.
Polk published the 1923 and 1928/29 city directories and the 1928 criss-cross directory.
Haines currently publishes the criss-cross directories, and our holdings start with 1978.
The Chicago Blue Book (1890-1916) serves as a directory of the more prominent citizens of the city, with entries organized both by name and by location.
Invaluable for Chicago's early history, city directories include not only names and addresses, but occupations and place of employment. Be advised, women are only listed if they were the head of household or employed.
We have city directories for 1839, 1843-1917, 1923, 1928/29 on microfilm and in hard copy.
Some city directories are available online via Google Books and the Internet Archive.
An onsite-only searchable database is available for the years 1844, 1851, 1859-68, 1871, 1873, 1881, 1890, 1910, and 1917.
Have an address and want to know who lived there or what business was there? Use a criss cross directory. We have the following years for Chicago:
We have a collection of Chicago city and telephone directories, dating from 1839 to 2005. We also have suburban telephone directories for 1920-1971 as well as scattered holdings between 1978 and 1996.
When doing research on past addresses, it is important to remember that in 1909, Chicago changed its street numbering system. Street names also changed periodically through Chicago’s history. It may be helpful for you to have both old and new addresses.
White Pages:
Yellow Pages:
Chicago Telephone Directories online from the Library of Congress.