Finding information out about my (150 year old) house?

Renwaldo

Hi,

Is there any way of getting the deeds of who lived in my house before me? I have a mortgage currently, and the house goes back to 1863. I've tried looking online but couldn't find much relating to my address.

What I'd be interested in is:

1) Any old pictures or plans of the land from when the house was built, maybe aerial views or something similar?

2) Who lived here in the past

3) When changes were made to the house (it has had 2 extensions built onto it, and also at some point was split from a big detached house to two houses)

No real reason for this other than curiosity, but no idea where to start other than just typing it into google!

bryanb

Census maybe?

Local church, marriage, baptism etc registers. Not sure if they show addresses though

verulamium

My partner recently used the census to find out who were the owners of our 140 year old house, just out of curiosity. Another is to check your local library and council.

beecher2

Do you have a local history department in your local library? They'd be the best bet to start you off.

If you're in Scotland, valuation rolls can give you some good information, I know a draper rented my flat in 1914 from a free search of the rolls. There's also the Scottish Post Office Directory - if you're in England I'm sure there are equivalents a librarian can help you with.

ManofLeisure_2

On 'Find My Past' it is possible to search the Census by using the address function in order to find who actually was resident at the time.

bouicca21

There are all sorts of books that will tell you how to research the history of your house. Census is the logical place to start. Valuation office is another good one. Electoral registers, rate books - there is all sorts of stuff you can look for.

It takes time and effort.

You will almost certainly get advice from your local record office. In the meantime have a look at this
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-place/houses.htm

PasturesNew

Most stuff will be physically held in your "local archives" which tend to be in County Council offices/similar.

A lot is searchable online - but even if searchable you might just see an index, so it might say "Your address ... plans, 1894" and you'd need to contact the archives and request them to get the originals out of their box for you to view at an appointment.

Some stuff can be found online - Census of 1871, 1881, 1891 are free. 1901 and 1911 tend to be behind paywalls - although you can get a free trial or look it up in libraries (free use to Ancestry in libraries, but make a solid list before you go in as time is limited to 30 minutes in many).

Old newspapers can yield any stories of residents. findmypast.co.uk - choose the newspapers from the drop down menu and type in your road name... then use the filters for county/date and see if you get results. You can "pick out the bones" of a story/detail just from using the search box without buying access.

All access to records is hugely variable across the country. Every county's different, you might hit on a good local history group, or none. You might stumble across a family who lived there who have an extensive online family tree.

I used findmypast to search one of my old addresses last week and found it had been a B&B 90 years ago and two holidaymakers had been drowned in the sea while staying there.

WestonDave

Might be worth checking with your local council as to what they've got in their archives - sometimes if the old pre-reg deeds aren't wanted (because they are no longer relevant after the land has been registered and people don't want the hassle of storing them) they get sent to the council for their archives.


We were lucky that our 1950's house wasn't registered by the time we bought it (and in fact the 1960's one we had before that) so in both cases we got the old deeds given to us. They are now in our fire proof cabinet. The history of the house isn't that interesting but the land ownership goes back to some interesting characters in the Plantagenet era.

Pandilex

Make sure your house existed before then too, the house I am buying was blown up in the war and rebuilt in 1948

Elsewhere

Is there a local museum? Perhaps you have a club dedicated to local history in your area - or there may be an evening class in local history, or a branch of U3A devoted to it?

venetianlagoon

When I get my new home it would be quite cool to do this.