Where to look

Where to look

Deeds to the house

Your own deeds for the house might go back to when it was built, giving you a complete chain of ownership. If they don't, try looking in the local record office (see below) to check if old deeds have been deposited for safe keeping by a solicitor.

Record Offices

The records of local government are held in county and city record offices. They also hold ecclesiastical, parochial, manorial and family records deposited by the owners. Available information could include old leases for properties once part of an estate. Firms of solicitors often deposit old deeds and sale particulars.

County and city record offices are open to the general public. A few charge a small search fee. It is always wise, and for some offices essential, to make an appointment. Archon gives locations in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Channel Isles and Isle of Man with some web sites. A range of catalogues describing archives held throughout England and dating from 900 AD to the present day are online at Access to Archives (A2A) out. .

The Public Record Office: The National Archives out., Kew, London, holds the records of national government. It is the major source for buildings now or once in the ownership of the Admiralty, the Ministry of Defence, the Department of the Environment and the Crown. This vast archive can also throw light on many other buildings through its records of taxation, registration, legal cases and Crown enquiries.

The Public Record Office is open to the general public, but requires official ID (such as a passport or driving licence) on the first visit, when a reader's ticket will be issued. Its catalogue is online.

Local libraries

Look in your local library for county or city directories. Common from the nineteenth century, they name city residents street by street. In the country householders are listed by house name or occupation. Some are now online at the Digital Library of Historical Directories out..

Start with the most recent and work your way back. That way you are less likely to be sent off track by any change of house name or number.

Most large public libraries will have a local studies section containing published works on the area.

Local studies archives might hold nineteenth century electoral registers, rate books and census returns. Together these will help to build up the picture of who occupied your house and what kind of people they were.

It may also have collections of local photographs, prints, postcards, trade cards and other ephemera, some perhaps mounted in the scrapbooks or grangerised volumes popular in the nineteenth century.

Some local studies libraries serve a wide area, such as the Westcountry Studies Library, which has a collection covering Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset, or Birmingham Central Library out., which holds a large local collection for Birmingham and the Midlands.

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