Methodology - House to Home Research

Many records are examined, studied and analyzed in order to peice together the story of your house and property. The following is a description of some of the resources that House to Home Research uses.

Maps are great tools for identifying geographical features, the layout of building lots, streets, the location of public buildings, roads, nearby factories and stores, railway lines, transit lines and more. Early maps provide land owner information such as land use, owner occupation, and tract and lot numbers. Early atlases often show land owner's names, lot layout and concession number as well as a list of residents in the town and a business directory.

Air photos capture a moment in time, and hence can reveal so much about a house and property. By viewing aerial photography over time, one can see the gradual or sudden changes made to the property, house and neighbouring areas. Photography is the best tool for identifying lost features on a house or building. Photos can provide the year an addition was built or when a house was demolished and re-built.

Fire insurance plans are very accurate and detailed plans showing the location, floor plan, and construction materials of everey building in a certain town or city. These plans are a great source when trying to deteremine whethere or not a house had a verandah, where doors and windows were located, locations of outbuildings, materials of construction, fences and other features. Fire insurance plans also show lot number, sizes, shapes, and positioning on the lot and sometimes the use of the building.

City directories can reveal who lived in a specific house on a year-by-year basis, as well as occupations, address, name of spouse and more. Directories can be used to easily chart property ownership at one address over several years.

Newspapers such as the Berlin Journal published building permit information, such as new buildings, additions and renovations. This information provides the year of the construction, the street location, the type of construction (one-storey, kitchen renovation, etc), as the cost. This type of information provides clues to the age of a neighbourhood as well as the value of the homes.