Trying to find your house in old Hyattsville records? It may not be where you think it is.

On Aug. 11, 1941, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission renamed many city streets as part of a regional plan. Residents protested to no avail.

Under the system, north-south streets are numbered, while east-west streets are in alphabetical order in sets of one, two or three syllables, typically named for famous Americans.

As this post on Greater Greater Washington notes, the plan is very predictable:

In Hyattsville and the neighboring communities, many of the street names are very similar to those found in DC, with the same progression of names in many cases. In both Hyattsville and Northwest DC, Hamilton is followed by Ingraham, Jefferson, Kennedy, and Longfellow.

The change can be a bit of a headache for anyone researching a historic house in Hyattsville or just trying to find information in the newly released 1940 Census data.

Now, you have some help. Stuart Eisenberg of the Hyattsville CDC pulled together a conversion chart based on information in “Hyattsville Our Hometown: 1886-1986,” published by the city.

We’ve made it available as a public Google Doc, so you can see what happened to Railroad Avenue, Cottage Road and Banner Street.