Tracing Your House History: A Guide For Family Historians

by Gill Blanchard

Overview

“With its practical slant and focus on demystifying unfamiliar property documents, this is the perfect introduction to tracing a house history.” —Family Tree Magazine

Anyone who wants to find out about the history of their house—of their home—needs to read this compact, practical handbook. Whether you live in a manor house or on a planned estate, in a laborer’s cottage, a tied house, a Victorian terrace, a twentieth-century council house or a converted warehouse—this is the book for you. In a series of concise, information-filled chapters, Gill Blanchard shows you how to trace the history of your house or flat, how to gain an insight into the lives of the people who lived in it before you, and how to fit it into the wider history of your neighborhood.

A wealth of historical evidence is available in libraries, archives and record offices, in books and online, and this is the ideal introduction to it. Gill Blanchard explores these resources in depth, explains their significance and directs the researcher to the most relevant, and revealing, aspects of them. She makes the research process understandable, accessible and fun, and in the process, she demystifies the sometimes-obscure language and layout of the documents that researchers will come up against.

“This book is more than a guide to researching the history of your house, or a house of interest. It is a font of interest if you are seeking to research and understand the social and domestic lives of people and their communities from early times.” —Federation of Family History Societies

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783376551
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Limited
Publication date:	01/31/2020
Series:	Tracing Your Ancestors
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Gill Blanchard is an experienced family and local history researcher, teacher and lecturer. She has an academic background in history,sociology and politicsand has been conducting family, house and local history research on a full-time professional basis since 1992. She began her research career by working at Norfolk Record Office assisting the public with their genealogical and local history research, and she set up her own research company in 1997. She teaches a range of family history courses locally, nationally and online. Among her most recent publications are Tracing Your House History and Writing Your Family History.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgements x

Introduction xi

Chapter 1 Where to Find Information and Resources 1

Indexes, Transcripts and Catalogues 2

Finding Archives, Record Offices, Local History Libraries, Heritage, Local and Family History Organizations and Online Resources 2

Chapter 2 Dating Your Home and House Style 4

Finding out more about Architects 15

Finding out more about Dating a Building 16

Chapter 3 Architectural Styles in England 19

Prehistoric to Norman Buildings 19

Medieval Homes, 1154-1485 20

Tudor Housing, 1485-1603 23

Stuart, 1603-1714 25

Georgian, 1720-1840 26

Victorian, 1837-1901 29

Edwardian, 1901-1910 37

Modem, Modernist and Post-Modernist 39

Model Villages, Philanthropic Schemes, Garden Cities, New Towns and Council Housing 40

Finding Resources for Model Villages and Philanthropic and Council Housing 48

Public Health and Slum Clearance Resources 49

Finding Public Health, Redevelopment and Slum Clearance Records 51

Chapter 4 Building Local Knowledge 56

Local Histories 58

Oral Histories, Local Tales, Legends 59

Finding out More about Local History 59

Finding Societies, Groups and Information 61

Photographs, Postcards, Paintings and Drawings 65

Aerial Surveys 69

Listed Buildings, Environmental and Heritage Surveys 70

Chapter 5 Resources 73

Births, Marriages and Deaths 77

Business and Occupational Records 78

Census Returns 83

Deeds 88

Directories and Gazetteers 97

The Domesday Book, 1086 100

Electoral Registers and Poll Books 100

Estate Records 106

Fire Insurance Records 110

Glebe Records 112

Hearth and Window Taxes 115

Land Registry 117

Land Tax 118

Manorial Records 120

Maps and Plans 131

National Farm Survey, 1941-1943 167

Newspapers 169

Parish Records 172

Quarter Sessions Records 178

Returns of the Owners of Land, 1873-1876 179

Sales Particulars 179

Valuation Office Survey, 1910-1920 (also known as the 'Lloyd George Domesday') 184

Wills, Administrations and Inventories 187

Chapter 6 Presentation and Writing your House History 193

Chapter 7 Directory of Resources 197

Organizations 197

Websites 202

Select Bibliography 206

Index 208

Editorial Reviews

All of the houses in which I’ve ever lived, right from 1946, have been fairly modern, so there would be no history attached to them. My wife’s first family house, in Kilburn, could have turned up some secrets, had anyone been interested during the time she lived there. This is an excellent reference work, another superb addition to Pen and Sword’s brilliant series.

Books Monthly