Tuesday's Tip ~ City Directories

Charles Chapin Adsit is my great grandfather. He was born on July 14, 1853, in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.

"Coming Events" on page 38 of the
October 26, 1890, Chicago Tribune

He married Mary Bowman Ashby on Thursday, October 30, 1890, in Louisville, Kentucky, as announced in the Chicago Tribune on October 26, 1890.

They had two children, both born in Chicago, Charles Chapin Adsit, Jr., born on July 3, 1892 (found in both WWI and WWII draft registration cards), and my grandmother, Elizabeth Adsit, born on June 18, 1897. I have previously written about Elizabeth's tennis playing and Elizabeth's wedding.

I have tried for years to find this family in the 1900 U.S. Census. This is an example of using a city directory (1) to help find a family in a census by confirming the street address, or if that isn't successful, (2) as a census substitute. Recently, I started a subscription to Footnote, where I found years worth of Chicago City Directories. On page 137 of The Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1900, I find Charles C. Adsit, a broker [of stocks and bonds] with his home at 73 Bellevue pl. (James M. Adsit on this same page, living at 400 Dearborn av is Charles' older brother.)

I then used the Stephen Morse website to find that the E.D. (Enumeration District) of 73 Bellevue Place is 710 (in Ward 24). I searched all 38 images for E.D. 710 in Ancestry.com and found addresses for Bellevue Place on several sheets. Unfortunately, there was no house number 73. I conclude that this family was not enumerated in the 1900 census, at least not in Chicago. (Perhaps they were visiting his wife's family in Kentucky?) However, the city directory tells me that they were living in Chicago at 73 Bellevue Place.

August 30, 2011 update: See my August 30 Tuesday's Tip to find out why I couldn't find this family in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census. 

Tuesday's Tip is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers, the genealogy community’s resource for blogging. It is used by many genealogy bloggers to help them tell stories of their ancestors.