Easy and Effective Ways to Research Your Property

Every house has a story. Whether you’re standing in a Victorian with original woodwork or a 1960s ranch with a mysterious addition, the walls around you have witnessed decades of lives, changes, and events you know nothing about.

Learning how to research your property isn’t just about curiosity; it’s a way to understand what you’ve bought (or get to know a place where you’ve been living for years), what might need attention, who walked these floors before you, and estimate a property’s worth.

Maybe you’re planning a renovation and want to know if that wall is original. Perhaps you’re considering buying and want to know if anything concerning happened at the address. Or you might simply want to connect with the community.

Ready to find out more about the property? Let’s get started.

Quick Start: How to Find Your House’s History Fast

Sometimes you need answers today. Maybe you’re about to close on a purchase, a contractor is asking when the addition was built, or you’re just intensely curious after moving in last weekend.

Here’s a checklist you can work through in 30 to 60 minutes:

1. Reverse search the address on Nuwber.com to check past residents of the house, determine how much it’s worth, and learn other important information about the property. You’ll also get to know nearby residents and find out whether sex offenders live in the neighborhood.
2. Search your county assessor or tax office website for your address. You’ll typically find the year built, lot size, square footage, and current owner on record. Many counties now offer free access to this basic information online.
3. Look up the address on free property sites like Zillow, Redfin, or Realtor.com. Note the listed year built, recent sales prices and dates, and scroll through any MLS photos from past listings — they often show previous layouts and finishes.
4. Run a quick newspaper search using the address in Google and on Chronicling America, the Library of Congress’s free newspaper archive. Search for your street address, street name plus “fire,” or the neighborhood name to surface old mentions.
5. Check aerial imagery at HistoricAerials.com or use Google Earth’s “historical imagery” slider to see your lot in earlier decades. Depending on your location, coverage may go back to the 1930s or 1940s.
6. Talk to a neighbor or call the local historical society. A long-term resident who’s been on the block since the 1970s may know more about your home’s history than any database.

Start Local: County Records and Title History

Most U.S. house histories begin at the county level. This is where deeds, tax records, and legal property descriptions are kept, often going back to the 1800s.

Use the County Tax Assessor’s Office

The tax assessor maintains records for tax purposes, but those same files are a gold mine for house research:

What to Look For	What It Tells You
Year built	Official construction date on record
Square footage	Original size vs. current (additions show up
Assessment history	Sharp value jumps often signal major renovations
Parcel ID / legal description	Needed for deed searches
Current owner	Starting point for tracing backward

Most assessor websites let you search by street address or parcel ID. If the site shows assessment histories, look for sudden increases — a property that jumped from $45,000 to $78,000 between 1957 and 1958 probably got a major addition that year.

Do a Deed or Title Search

To trace your ownership history, visit or search the county Recorder of Deeds, Register of Deeds, or Land Records Office. Many counties have digitized older records, though you may need to visit in person for anything before the 1970s.

The process works like this:

1. Start with your current deed, which identifies the current owner and references the previous deed (often by book and page number or instrument number).
2. Pull that previous deed, which references the one before it.
3. Continue backward, recording each grantor (seller) and grantee (buyer) with dates.
4. You’ll often trace back to a subdivision plat, a farm sale, or even an original land patent.

This chain of title deeds can reveal fascinating transitions — a 40-acre farm subdivided in 1910, a foreclosure during the Great Depression in the 1930s, or a rapid series of flips during the 2008 housing crisis.

Check Related Legal Records

Beyond deeds, these records can enrich your home’s story:

• Wills and probate files show how property passed between family members when someone died.
• Mortgages and liens reveal major financial events, construction loans, or foreclosures.
• Land patents from the Bureau of Land Management’s General Land Office records document the first transfer from the federal government to a private owner (particularly relevant in western states).

Dig Into Building Permits, Plans, and Architectural Clues

Building department files can tell you exactly when your house was originally built and document every major change since (if your city kept good records).

Take Advantage of Building Permits

Contact your city’s Building Department, Planning Office, or search their online permitting portal. Look for:

• Original construction permits (date, builder name, estimated cost);
• Addition and remodel permits (that 1953 garage, the 1991 kitchen expansion);
• Electrical, plumbing, and mechanical permits;
• Demolition permits for structures that used to exist on the lot.

A typical search might reveal permits from 1926 (original construction), 1953 (detached garage), 1978 (new roof), and 1991 (kitchen addition). Each permit often lists contractor names and work descriptions.

Keep in mind that formal permitting systems only began in the late 1800s in major cities and much later in rural areas. For houses built before that, or for informal additions, there may be no permits on file.

Look at Architectural Drawings and Blueprints

Original plans are less consistently preserved, but you might find them in:

• Building department archives (sometimes kept with the original permit application);
• The files of the original architectural firm (if still in business);
• University archives with architectural collections;
• Family papers held by descendants of original owners.

If you locate records, photograph or scan surviving plans to compare the “as built” layout against your current floor plan.

Use Directories and Census Records to Find Past Occupants

Once you know who lived at your address, you can uncover personal stories, such as occupations, family events, and connections to local history.

Leverage City and Telephone Directories

City directories are the historical equivalent of phone books, published annually in most cities from the mid-1800s through the 1970s or later. They list residents by name and often by address, making them essential for house research.

Where to find them:

• Your local public library’s local history room;
• The Library of Congress city directory collections;
• Internet Archive (archive.org) has many digitized directories;
• Ancestry.com and other genealogical sites.

How to use them:

1. Search by your address to see who was listed as head of household;
2. Note occupations (many directories list them);
3. Look for “r.” (renter) vs. “o.” (owner) designations;
4. Track the same address across multiple years to see turnover.

Make Use of Census Records

U.S. federal census records exist for every decade from 1790 to 1950 (a 72-year privacy rule keeps 1960 and later restricted). The 1940 and 1950 censuses are particularly useful because they’re searchable by address in many locations.

Census records show:

• Names of all household members;
• Ages and birthplaces;
• Relationships to head of household;
• Occupations;
• Whether they owned or rented;
• Value of the home (in some census years).

Examine Maps

Visual sources show what was on the land before your house existed and how the neighborhood evolved around it.

View Historic Maps

Several types of historical maps can help locate records and understand your property’s context:

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (1867–1970s) cover most U.S. cities and show building footprints, construction materials (brick, wood, stone), number of stories, and use (dwelling, store, factory). A 1929 Sanborn sheet for a Chicago block might show your house as a 2-story frame dwelling with a rear porch that no longer exists.

County atlases and plat maps from the 19th century show rural landowners and can reveal that your subdivision was once part of the Johnson farm or the Morrison estate. A 1903 county atlas might show the original 80-acre parcel before it was broken up.

Where to find these maps:

• Local library reference rooms;
• State historical societies;
• Library of Congress Geography and Map Division;
• University map collections;
• ProQuest and other subscription databases (often accessible through libraries).