Tracing the history of your home

Tracing the history of your home is a fascinating and all absorbing hobby.

But where do you start?…..

Roughly speaking, house-history research can be split into two large themes:-

• The people who lived in my house.
• The building itself.

So there’s two broad questions to ask about your home…

a) Who lived in your house?

Have you ever wondered who lived in your house before you?

• What sort of life did they lead?
• What jobs/occupations did they have?
• How many children?
• What was their family life?
• What were their tragedies and triumphs?

Children pose for the camera in Lavenham – early 1900s

Sudbury early 1900s

A variety of records can be used to discover the stories of your home’s occupants – from Census Returns and Registers, to tithe apportionment records.

Even eBay and Facebook can be used to discover the stories of people who once lived in your home!

Georgian/Victorian Cottages built for local workers- Lavenham

Formerly workers’ cottages, now pretty homes in Lavenham

b) Your house

You may be able to guess a lot about the physical building that is your home. Its building material – such as brick, flint, stone, timber-framed.

However, you will want to research other information such as when, why and who built your home.  The date of your house – the era/century/decade.

Finding out information about the house itself is often the more complex of the two broad themes connected with house-histories…

Sometimes records will exist about the construction of your house. But not all the time…

Certainly for older homes, records will be far more sketchy.  You’ll need to use all sorts of detective work to pin down your house’s full story!

That’s all part of the fun!

Step-by-step, peeling back the layers…until you find the true story of the history of your house…

Timber-framed thatched cottage at Kirby Quay, Essex

Resources for tracing the history of your home

I’ve written a short pdf listing some of the resources that you can use for part b) of the conundrum of researching the history of a house – When was my house built

Download your FREE eBook 25 online resources for uncovering the secret history of your home…

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