How to Research Your Homes History

Buying an old home is full of surprises. Sometimes you'll find little things in-between or underneath floor boards. Other times you'll find cabinets lined with very old newspapers or documents in between walls. Lots of times you find little hidden treasures here and there and a bit of everywhere. The older the home is the more years that they've had to collect.

History is one of those things that takes time to collect as well. A home that is hundreds of years old is likely to have been lived in by may different people, likely of the same family. Sometimes a home passes through many owners over the years. Very old homes have been in their towns since the towns were formed and settled. They become landmarks. People who come from the local area can't remember that house not being there because it always has been. Many times the oldest houses in towns will be called by a name. People know of them. People always have. What they know passes away with them and becomes history. What we do with the home becomes history as well, in the end.

The first and most important step in doing the research and learning about your homes history is to want to. Are you really interested? Do you really want to know who lived there and what role they played in the history of your town? Maybe it was a known home well used by the community. Lineage is important. It ties in with genealogy, family trees. Who you are, where you came from, what was and what is.

The steps to take to do the actual research are not that difficult. The place to go to find out who has lived there is the county clerks office. Generally this is the place where all of the land records are stored. Deeds can be traced back. You can look up the property and see everyone who has ever owned it. The clerk will be happy to assist you and to instruct you as to have to use the books and computers.

The local library may contain olds newspapers. If you read through the newspapers of that town from the earliest times until present, or if you do a search on a newspaper archive computer of the address of the property or the previous owners' names, you will likely find some interesting information and even see some pictures from the earlier days of the home and surrounding town.

The internet is a valuable research tool. You can search the address of the home to find anything about that home online that is written and containing the address. You can search the names of all of the previous owners to find out information about them. You can also search the town name and likely come up with town history pages that will contain information about the town, the people and the home.

You home has it's own unique history. The older the home the more historical it becomes. Get to know your home by doing the research. Document it, print it, scrapbook it and make the history become even richer, and last all the longer. Someday it will pass from you to the next. Take care and thanks for reading!