I'm one of those people that's always been curious about my house's history - who lived there, why they covered the hardwood with linoleum, what the place looked like before I came along. If you're like me, you can get some answers thanks to the digitization of the 1940 U.S. Census.

Assignment #129 in the 365 Things to Do in Memphis is to find out who lived in your house (or that awesome house down the street):

The system isn't perfect - you have to search by location, and once you find it, you have to skim rows of neatly handwritten data to find the exact address -  but it's fascinating. 

I don't know much about my house's history, beyond that it was built in the 1920s and that someone did a mediocre job of flipping it right before the market crashed in 2009. The only clues I've had to past inhabitants are a few scrawls of angsty adolescent graffiti in my basement.

Through the census, I found out that in 1940, Mr. H.B. Willis (age 62) and his wife, Willie (age 59) lived in my house in 1940. He was from Mississippi and  had compeleted some college, she was from Ohio and had completed high school. He worked as a senior clerk on a WPA county mapping project, and she taught music lessons out of the house (a fact that makes me happy 72 years later).

Keep in mind that this won't work if you live somewhere that was built after 1940, but you could easily search for your parents or grandparents (or that cool house down the street) if you have an address.

To find your house, search the 1940 Census.

What did you find out? Leave your little history lesson in the comments.