How do I find out historical facts about my house?

Question

I would like to find out some historical facts about my parent's home in Ohio - such as who lived there, when it was built, if anything out of the ordinary took place there.

Anyone have any suggestions? Do I goto City Hall or something?

Answer 1

You can go to the local courthouse, library, or even historical society if the town has one.  You can search the internet too if they have the public records on the net (deeds, etc).  Depends on how old and how far back you are needing to go.  Most old stuff you need to go and do hands on research, especially for houses.  Its fun and you usually end up meeting someone who will be a valuable resource to you.  I'd start with doing some internet research first to see what you come up with, and then I'd go digging in person to the places listed above.  That should really help you start out.  

Answer 2

Most towns with any history have some sort of historical society which keeps track of buildings of any significance. They will know.

Answer 3

Look at the documents associated with the house, the title deed, the abstract especially.  It has all the owners since day 1.  Don't listen to the other answers.  The ABSTRACT is the only document that lists all the owners of the property.

Answer 4

The local library should have City Directories, records of who lived where in what year and most likely what they did for a living.  You can look them up by name or by address.  My local library's City Directories go back to 1870, and they were a big help when a local paranormal investigation group was investigating our haunted house.  I was able to find records of residents all the way back to 1895, and the property existed back to 1891.  Also, there should be old newspaper records on microfilm at the library.  My library has what's like a card catalog for newspaper articles.  They are divided into different categories like Fire, Arson, Crime, etc.  The cards will have the category name, date of article, location of article in the microfilm, and a sentence or two about the article.  They're very handy when trying to find if something happened on the property, but you have to remember that even if you don't find anything, it doesn't mean it didn't happen.  It's just a record of newspaper articles, not actual events.  For example, there was a fire a few blocks away a couple weeks ago, and there was nothing in the newspaper about it.  And you can always ask a librarian for help with finding something or with the microfilm (yeah, I have no idea how to use the microfilm machine).

I hope I helped!

Answer 5

The local deeds registry would probably be the best place to start. It will have records of each owner of the property, when it was transferred and how [sold, inherited, etc.], and the size of the property, which will tell you if any pieces of land were sold or given away from the original plot.  This can be challenging!  The registry clerk will be able to help you understand how to work backwards through all the volumes.

When you buy a house this is called a title search, and will cost a couple hundred dollars.