History of my house?

Question

where can i find the history of my house??

Answer 1

Your own deed may show that your property was subdivided from a larger property at some point in time.  Mine does.  In fact, it's shown as having been part of the "Shelley Estate".  It's less likely that it was an estate in the classic sense than just a post mortem sale, but since the street behind my own is Shelley Avenue, it gave me a clue that there was a larger piece of property owned by someone named Shelley.  It's not shown on the colonial maps of my area, or even on those on display in town hall when the neighborhood was developed at the time the NYC reservoir system was planned and the nearby aqueducts and dams constructed, but guided me to an intermediate point somewhere between 1906 and 1928.  Still looking, but that relatively easy to gather info has taken me this far.  

Edit:  Since that was before my town had a zoning ordinance, there would likely be no record of a subdivision approval.  However, there should be a building permit on record.  Once you can track down the permit, you've got a great deal of information.  On rethinking all this, the place to start would be building inspector of your city or town.  Of course, if the house is very old, it's not likely there would be a permit for initial construction, but any additions or major renovations would require a building permit to begin the work and a CO (certificate of occupancy) to verify that it was completed and up to code.

Answer 2

Start with your local public library and historical society.

Answer 3

Start with your abstract title.  It will give you a complete history of every owner since it was built.  Then you can look up the families and ask them for any interesting history.

Answer 4

Great question! The best place to start would be your county deed room and, perhaps, tax records, where you can see the trail of ownership and, possibly, when additions were made, adjoining land acquired, and so on.

You also may have to do some broad research of the times to fully appreciate what prior owners (and, for that matter, the house itself) was going through, depending upon its age. For example, if your house is 75 or so years old, I'd bet you a dollar to a donut that you will find mortgage or even foreclosure papers from the 1930s--everyone was losing their home or borrowing on it during the Great Depression.

Also, look in the library for old phone books. If you can get access to this at the library or some lawyer's office, do a word search of your street in your state's appellate cases and see which, if any, homes in the area (maybe yours!) was involved in a civil or criminal lawsuit.

Going back to the title search and prior owners, once you get some names, you may try to search out those owners or their descendents--kids, grandkids, and so on. If you get real lucky in this area, people will have pictures of your home when it was "younger."

Also, if you got some guts, and this works out, visit some of your older neighbors and ask them about the people who lived there, how the house used to look, etc.,

These are just some ideas to get you started. Have fun!!