UpFront with NGS: House History

Showing posts with label House History. Show all posts

14 October 2014

Doing a House History (aka Genealogy of a House) -- FREE Guide & other resources

Source: House Histories, House and Suburban Histories from South East Queensland, http://www.househistories.org/

Though we often find ourselves researching the people in our family, we sometimes find ourselves researching the history of a house.

I first talked to you about the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office in the post Historic Preservation Maps Can be Invaluable to Genealogists where I talk about HPOWEB, a GIS map service which identifies identified historic properties.

They’ve now created a neat & FREE resource, Genealogy of a House: Sources for Researching the History of Your House. I also suggest that you check out House Histories – How to Trace the Genealogy of Your Home or Other Building (About.com, Kimberly Powell), Researching Historic Washington, D.C., Buildings (Library of Congress), and House Histories – House and Suburban Histories from South East Queensland, for perspectives on the tools and techniques for researching a house history.

Though the focus of the publications are NC, DC, and Australia, they all provide valuable insight into how to perform the genealogy of a house and some of the tools which may aid you in that pursuit.. Additionally, if these resources exist for doing a house history in these locales, maybe your state or the state you’re interested in has similar resources available to researchers.

Have you done a house history? What resources were invaluable?

20 March 2014

Sometimes to do a House History, just as with Family History research, you need to turn to Science!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dendrochronological_drill_hg.jpg, Hersteller: Preßler GmbH Planung und Bauforschung, Untergerstener Straße 4, 49838 Gersten/Emsland, Germany

Just as we sometimes find as we research our ancestors, a paper trail can only take you so far! Well, the same can be true when researching the history of a house or building. Paperwork hasn’t survived, there are no contemporary accounts mentioning its construction, etc.

Where for people research we will now often turn to DNA testing, for dating/aging a house or other structure, we can turn to dendrochronology.

I was just reminded of this when reading Wood offers clues to past which talks about using dendrochronology which studies “the tree rings found in the wood of the house” to determine when the “Crabtree” Jones house and its additions were built.

“ ... the rings are a fingerprint of sorts that show how a tree grew and can indicate when it was cut down, offering a valuable clue about when its wood was used in construction.”

This reminded me that the historic Joel Lane House (another Wake County NC landmark building) also underwent dendrochonology in 2013 and this technique was also used to date a Pitt County farm house (constructed in 1742).

This technique isn’t just used for dating structures, the NC Museum of Art also used to determine the age of some of its artwork.

So, remember, that just as with people, sometimes the paper trail is insufficient (or non-existent) with regards to houses, structures, furnishings, etc., and there are tactics one might take to learn more about the age as well as scientific techniques such as dendrochronology.

Have you been involved with a project where dendrochronology was used?

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14 March 2014

Upfront Mini Bytes – Row Houses, Lawyers in London, TV News, Norwegian Ancestors, Youth Bibliography, Slavery Map, and Irish Research

Welcome to our newest edition of our bi-weekly feature Upfront Mini Bytes. In Upfront Mini Bytes we provide eight tasty bits of genealogy news that will help give you a deeper byte into your family history research. Each item is short and sweet. We encourage you to check out the links to articles, blog posts, resources, and anything genealogical!

We hope you found the past editions helpful. Use your favorite search engine with “Upfront with NGS” “Mini Bytes” or use this Google search link.

Do you have questions, suggestions for future posts, or comments? Please post a comment or send an e-mail to UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org.

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A bit of whimsy and history all rolled into one package. Enjoy The Lonely Row Houses of Baltimore.

Did an ancestor practice law in London between 1505 and 1845? If so, he might have been a member of what is now called the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. Some of its records, Calendars of Inner Temple Records, 1505-1845 are available online.

Did you know that cartographers used to think that California was an Island? This reminds us to be cautious about what we take as “fact” as we do our research. Check out this neat collection of these maps.

It’s not always archival institutions that had the forethought to preserve history. Sometimes it’s individuals like you and me who amass an archive of material that then gets a long-term home in an archive. Read about such a situation in The Incredible Story of Marion Stokes, Who Single-Handedly Taped 35 Years of TV News. From 1977 to 2012, she recorded 140,000 VHS tapes worth of history that the Internet Archives plans to make public and searchable. On a related note, read here about the Vanderbilt Television News Archive.

Have Norwegian ancestors? Check out the online presence of The National Archives of Norway. You can access digitized parish registers, probate records, court records, and much more!

We often discuss getting more youth involved in the fascinating discovery of one’s roots! A Bibliography for Young People and Families created by New England Historic Genealogical Society (aka American Ancestors) might help get the ball rolling.

To better appreciate the extent of Slavery in the U.S. at the time of the Civil War (based on the 1860 census), check out A Map of American Slavery.

The Irish Genealogical Research Society’s annual journal, The Irish Genealogist, has been published since 1937. It has included information from newspapers, parish registers, family Bibles, genealogies, voters lists, pedigrees, membership rolls, deeds, marriage settlements, census substitutes, land and tenure surveys, marriage license bonds, courts records, and wills. Over 250,000 names can be searched

via a new database.

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22 January 2014

Historic preservation maps can be invaluable to genealogists

Whether you are doing a house history, learning the history of a locale, helping with an application for a historic property, etc, historical context plus documentary & non-textual resources are invaluable.

I stumbled across a neat GIS web service (aka map) (HPOWEB) for NC created by The North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office

“This service was created by the State Historic Preservation Office as an aid to planning and research. Site locations and boundaries are drawn from georeferenced scans of National Register and historic property survey maps supplemented with aerial photography, county tax parcel layers, and other sources. Data layers in this map are updated daily from the current HPO geodatabase. ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS SERVICE.”

It’s a really neat resource to see what properties have been identified. Run your cursor over any “shape” on the map and you will see more details about the identified property and if it is listed in the National Register, there will be a link to its application.

This information can be invaluable to genealogists. For example, assume my family lived in the vicinity of a structure which had been identified as existing at the time when they lived in the area. If there are extant records for that historic property, might there be a mention of my family?

Has your community, county or state created a similar map showing identified historic properties?

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26 July 2012

DNA enlivens effort to save past

It is always exciting to hear about someone’s success using DNA testing to make “connection” both to family and places!

The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) recently published such an article with the subheading “Woman finds she has connection to Orange county historical site.”

CHAPEL HILL -- Sitting at a table at the Outback Steakhouse in Suwanee, Ga., Ernest Dollar insisted on making a brief speech before presenting the envelope – with such a flourish that his wife asked him whether he really had to be so dramatic – to Deardra Green-Campbell.

“Ernie made a big production out of it,” said Green-Campbell, an economic development consultant in Atlanta. “But the truth was, it was a very emotional moment for me.”

Inside the envelope were the results of a DNA analysis comparing her family’s genetic makeup with that of the Hogan family, among the first to settle in Orange County.

The conclusion: a strong indication that Green-Campbell was descended from Harriet Hogan – a slave of Thomas Lloyd Hogan – and William Johnston Hogan, the slave-owner’s white son...

Read the full article.

When looking for a link to the article, I found a companion piece “Woman visits Orange County home of her enslaved ancestor.”

CHAPEL HILL -- Deardra Green-Campbell stood for the first time Wednesday in the home of her enslaved ancestor.

Dirt and cobwebs covered the floor from years of neglect, and the original horsehair plaster crumbled off the wall in chunks.

In the midst of remnants from her family’s past, Green-Campbell broke down with emotion. Tears streamed down her face, and she collapsed into her son’s arms.

“There’s no place I can be or step in this house that she has not touched,” Green-Campbell said. “It’s just overwhelming.”

Read the full article.

Such a priceless journey for this individual and her family.

Tell us of a priceless journey taken by you based on DNA results!

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24 May 2012

Home is Where The History Is

My house [Wake County Real Estate Data] -- probably taken c. 1994 the year we purchased it -- based on cars and absence of trees in front yard and neighbors house not even built!

Tina Traster in the New York Post recently wrote ...

“For seven years on and off, I’ve been doing a genealogy project — but instead of investigating my family’s roots, I’m entangled in another family’s ancestry and the history of my house. When exactly was my circa 1870s home built? Who built it? And who lived in it all those years until my family and five cats moved in?

I began by finding out more about the Garrabrants, an old Dutch family who settled in the Hudson Valley in the late 1700s. I knew that part of the family had ended up living on my road and farming on the mountain, which in the mid-1800s was called Garrabrant Mountain...

Read the full article.

As I surfed the internet after reading this story I also came across the site My House History.

Have you done a house history? What is the most fascinating thing you learned about those who lived in the house before your family?

What resources will help others who want to research the history of their house?

Editor's Note: The history of my current house is easy as we are the original owners and throughout my research I have done bits and pieces of house research for either places I have lived or those where my ancestors have lived.

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20 December 2011

Who's Been Sleeping in My House?

The title of this Australian show really caught my eye -- "Who's Been Sleeping in My House?" It's a series that has pieced together the history of eight houses to reveal a "past that isn't always recorded in the history books."

What a great program idea! Though we can't watch the content (only those living Australia can) you can learn more about the houses and see photos of them. There is also a research page describing the various Australian resources for learning more about houses and their owners.

If you are like me, it might inspire you to do the same type of research either into the house you live in or for those that your ancestors lived in.

My "closest" example of this was a house purchased by my grandparents in the UK -- called Croftlands. My grandfather died shortly after they purchased the house. Though I remember visiting it as a 7 year old, it had the highest beds, unfortunately, that was all I remembered of that visit -- nothing of my grandfather. In the course of researching further into my gran and grandad after her death, the local library put me in touch with the house's owners -- they were the couple who purchased the house from my Gran over 45 years earlier! And, they remembered my grandparents and wrote me a letter sharing their recollections of them; invaluable to me.

Croftlands

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