It's not a very big leap from genealogy research to house research, but there are some differences between researching the history of a building and researching the people who occupied it.
In Chronicling America, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/, you might find historical newspapers detailing the development of a town and its inhabitants. This collection has digital newspapers predominantly from the 1860s through the early 1900s.
In FamilySearch, www.familysearch.org, more deeds are becoming available through FamilySearch’s historical record search. To see if records for your state and county are available, go to the FamilySearch website, click on Search, and select United States from the regional list. Click on a state name on the left to show collections from only that state.
The Library of Congress (LOC) has digitized many maps, https://loc.gov/maps/collections. The LOC’s collection can help you determine what years maps were published for your area, even if they aren’t online.
The Library of Congress also has a collection dedicated to historic American buildings. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/
3. National Register of Historic Places, maintained by the National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/database-research.htmmaintains offers researchers the ability to search by county and state to see if their home has already been researched and registered. Even if it isn’t listed, try to find another house from the same area and time.
Researching older homes and the families who lived in them is a wonderful way to add to your genealogy research. You might find a long-lost relative living in a household as a lodger or boarder in a home. So, instead of missing, this relative could have just moved and possibly married into the family they were living with.
Do you have tips for researching an old home? Please share them with us.
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