Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Google Maps of Ancestral Homes

It’s time for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver and because tomorrow is Easter Sunday, I am actually posting SNGF on Saturday! Very unusual for me.

Here is this week’s challenge:

1)  Identify an ancestral home address ( preferably one with a street address…) for one of your ancestral families (You do know where they lived, don’t you?  If not, consult the 1900 to 1940 US Census records, or City Directories).

2)  Go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) and enter the street address (and city/town if necessary – usually you can pick from a list) for your selected ancestral home.

3)  Look at the street map, the satellite map, and the street view.  Zoom in or out, or manipulate the image as you wish.

At first, I thought I’d share the family home in Calais, Maine. However, Calais is a small town and the Google vehicle only drove through Main Street and not up the residential streets.

I’ve also written about Passaic so many times that I’ve decided on the Ridgewood, Bergen, New Jersey home where my grandparents lived in the 1940s and which was my mother’s last home before she moved out on her own and went into the Navy.

So, 630 Wyndemere Avenue, Ridgewood, Bergen, New Jersey is it. I actually have a photo from c1945 of the house after a snowstorm.

Here is the home as of 2019:

It looks quite similar, but has lost a bit of charm with the yellow siding and missing arch over what is now the driveway.

The blur on the right side is interesting – the entire house next door is blurred out. I guess someone went to the trouble to make sure their house can’t be seen online.

Here is the street view:

and the satellite view:

Ridgewood High School is just west of the family home and is where my mother and one of my aunts graduated from high school.

The house view still has a bit of rural feeling with lots of trees and grass. However, the satellite view gives an entirely different impression.

Ridgewood is quite built up with lots of businesses to the east along Route 17.

Thanks, Randy, for a fun topic this week.

3 thoughts on “Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Google Maps of Ancestral Homes”

  1. You are certainly early this week. I actually like the house in the today photo with the yellow paint. Looks like a really nice neighborhood, good for evening walks.

  2. I love the 40s photo best of all! Very cool that this house is still around as well. I agree, though, it has lost a little of its charm now the little arch has been removed. Gave it a bit of a medieval feel.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.