Although you may have a childhood address permanently embedded in your brain, it's sometimes maddeningly difficult to remember an address you might have had only a few years ago. Perhaps you only lived at a place for a short time, used your parent's address for official purposes, or simply can't remember whether you lived at 1234 or 4321 Main St. You can turn to several different sources to recreate a list of the places you've lived.
Check Your Credit History
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The three main credit history bureaus -- Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion -- keep tabs on your address history as part of their credit records. You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report once a year from any or all three of these companies. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com or call the toll-free number at 1-877-322-8228 to request a copy of your report. The report will include most, if not all, of your addresses from the time your credit history began.
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There are more than a dozen other specialty history reports you can request, such as check-writing history, tenant history, and employee history reports. Request one or more of these free reports to expand the information available from your credit history.
Check Your Tax History
Your annual income tax filing includes the address you filed under at the time. It might also include other addresses you used during the year on the forms that you submitted with the filing, such as your W-2. Check through your personal financial records to compile a list of your previous addresses from old tax forms. If you are missing one or more years, you can get past filing information from the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS will send you a transcript (electronic printout) of your return at no charge, or a full copy of your submission for a fee. Send in a request form or call the IRS at 800-908-9946 to make your request.
Check Your Personal Records
Your credit history and IRS tax records can uncover addresses from your working years, but to find addresses from your childhood, you'll have to dig deeper. Your school report cards, personal correspondence, early bank statements and other documents you've compiled over the course of a lifetime can all help to fill in the blanks of your address history. Contact institutions for copies of records you didn't preserve. Schools you attended, doctors who treated you and organizations you belonged to are all potential sources of additional information to complete a list of your previous addresses.