Have you ever wondered about your geneology? Have you ever heard stories from your grandparents about their parents or their parent’s parents? Well what about the house they lived in or the house you live in right now? Just like people, homes have stories too. The older the home, the more people lived in it, and the more stories it holds.
In 2010, we bought our 1920’s Craftsman bungalow on an acre. This nearly 100 year old house had to have stories, I mean, how could it not. So I started to investigate and here are the steps I took to find my homestead’s story.
Stop by your local Record of Deeds office
We had just received our official deed for our home in the mail and it gave me a great idea, why not look up the previous deeds to the home. It was about the best first place to start because I would get names and dates of when the house was purchased. It was a great starting point but it can be long and confusing. I spent about half a day in the office copying deeds and when it got earlier than 1940’s, the names on the deeds turned in initials. Do you know how many B. Haney’s I found? A lot!
Typically you can find your Register of Deeds office at our local government or courthouse. Mine is in the local courthouse, next to the offices of marriage certificates and the tax collector. Here are the list of deeds I have found for our home.
- Ortiz Family (2010 – present)
- Jimmy Flowe & Family (2008-2010)
- True Gospel Prayer Temple (2001-2008)
- Wally Gilmer & Family (1989-2001)
- Jamie Vann Haney Family (1984-1989)
- Motes Family (1978-1984)
- Vernon Haney & Family (1942-1978)
- O.L Richardson & Family (1930-1942)
- Bernard Haney & Family (1920-1930)
City Historical Society or Museums
If you live in a historic or old town, chances are there is a museum or historical society around. Our town just opened a museum back in 2012 and we can find our county’s historic society in the old 1800’s courthouse, two towns away. These two places are a wealth of information. You may have to think outside the box though. A little information from another home or church may lead to information on your own home.
Our historical preservation society lead me to a book that was published back in 1990 titled “Sweet Union: An Architectural and Historical Survey of Union County North Carolina“. It is an accumulation of historic and architectural resources of our county and illustrate a reminder of how the settlement and development started for the town in my county. Our home being built in the 1920’s made it in the book and in great detail describes it and all the attributes that make it a Craftsman home. Just the beginning sentence of that excerpt helped me immensely. First, Bernard Haney was the one to build this home and have the very first deed to the property. He was a local farmer and business man in the 1920’s. Here is the excerpt:
“Bernard Haney, a local businessman and farmer, constructed this bungalow for his family ca. 1920. The sprawling porch is perhaps the dwellings most outstanding feature. The main block of the house is basically rectangular: the façade features a small gabled projections and the rear of the south elevation has a small side gabled wing. All gables are embellished with Craftsman brackets. The porch has a shed roof extending across the façade from the front projection, the main portion of the porch forms a wide porte cochere with a side gable. A secondary portion of the porch wraps the south elevation to the rear wing. The porch roof is supported by tapered pillars on brick piers. German siding sheathes the portions of the facade sheltered by the porch. The basically three bay façade features a central entrance in a simple surround single replacement windows. Original fenestration includes single, pair, and tripled multi-paned over one windows. Exterior doors have multi paned glass in top half. The rear elevation has a simple shed roofed porch sheltering the four bays- two doors flanked by single windows. Interior features include beaded board wainscoting, chair rails and six panel doors.
Inspect Your House of Clues
In the 20’s, Craftsman homes were the more common type of home built. We had know of Sears and Roebuck Company selling actual mail order home kits and wondered if we might happen to have one. We found out that we don’t have this model home when we remodeled the house and was able to look inside the walls.
Here is a list of clues for Sears Mail Order Homes:
- Stamped lumber on beams and joists and rafters.
- Shipping labels on millwork; moldings and trims.
- Check Sears floor plans they sold with Sears Archives Online,
- Verify construction date between 1908 to 1940.
Research Old City Directories & Phone Books
These contain an alphabetical list of residents and usually note the person’s occupation, and home or business address in the directories. I researched these and phone books briefly but got very confused. I had found my address in old phone books but the names never matched up. Then I realized, the house was owned by one family but rented out to other families. The renters names would never match up to the names on the deeds. I recommend this avenue but tread with caution.
Census Records
The federal census was taken every ten years beginning in 1790. Census records from 1900 to 1950 can provide further information on the families who owned and lived in your home. The census will provide the name of each person living in the house, their age, occupation, place of birth and more. I broke down and paid for a one month subscription to Ancestry.com.
I made sure I got my money’s worth and looked up mine and my husbands family genealogy during that month. But for our homestead, I was able to find out that the builder, Bernard Haney, lived here during the 1920’s but moved two towns over in the 1930’s. I am guessing because of the Great Depression.
Building Permits
Building permit records when a house was built, who built it, the original cost and building type. Unfortunately, this avenue came to a sudden halt after I called my county’s building inspection and permit office. They told me that they are only required to hold on to permits for 6 years. What a major bummer. But you never know, you may be able to find something at yours. It is worth a call.
Google Earth History Search
To me this is a scary and very cool way to search for properties. I downloaded the Google Earth software and typed in my address. Since Google Earth started, they have taken pictures and saved them. So you can not only see your home at its most recent picture but images from years past. I found our homestead from 1993. The quality of the image is terrible but hey, its history. I had found pictures of our homestead between 1993 and 2007 but they were extremely blurry and really not worth attaching to this post. I am excited for the next picture update from Google Earth.
This is a Google Earth image of our homestead back in 1993. It is barely viewable.
This is the image I had found from Feb. 2007. I can see a white car in the backyard on the property line. Which actually makes sense since we had heard from neighbors that a previous resident had nothing but cars, broken and parts, in the backyard. Sort of like a junkyard. We also find all sorts of car parts in the yard when we till the garden.
Here is the March 2012 image. We have had the home for 2 years now. This is the winter right after we put the gorgeous red metal roof on.
And here is the last one, November 2014. Our new master suite addition has made it on Google Earth.
Talk to your neighbors
We live in a country town in North Carolina. When we moved in everyone wanted to know who we were and where we came from. They also had no problem telling us all the past residents who lived in this house before us. Now I am never sure what stories are true and what are rumors or assumptions. So I have to take stories as just that stories.
A neighbor who grew up in the area told us how back in the 1960’s there was a very large family of polygamists that took up residents in our home. Another lady told me a story of the same family that took in runaways or people who needed help. But in any case, the stories are interesting and fun to learn and hear about.
Other sites to research
Bureau of Land Management; general land management records provides access to Federal land conveyance records for public land states, including image access to Federal land title records, survey plats, and field notes issued between 1820 to the present.
Cyndi’s List & Ancestry.com Genealogy Online Websites
I hope you enjoyed this post and it gets you wondering about your homestead!