A guide · United States

How to find the history of your house

Almost everything about an American house's past — who owned it, who lived in it, when it was built and what stood there before — is in public records, and most of them are free to read. This is the order to read them in.

In the UK? Read the UK guide instead: the records are different.

Step 1

Pull the parcel record from the county assessor

Search your address on the county assessor's (or property appraiser's) website. The parcel record gives you the parcel number, the year built, the lot's legal description and the subdivision or plat it belongs to. Keep the parcel number and legal description: every record office below indexes by them.

The year built is often an estimate entered decades after the fact, and a remodel can reset it. Treat it as a lead, not an answer.

Step 2

Walk the deed chain backwards at the county recorder

The county recorder (also called the register of deeds or county clerk) holds every recorded deed. Use the grantor–grantee index to find the deed by which the current owner acquired the house, read who sold it, then look up how they acquired it, and keep going. Mortgages, releases and easements recorded alongside the deeds fill in the gaps.

Many counties have online indexes back to the 1970s or 1980s; older books are on microfilm at the recorder's office. FamilySearch has digitised deed books for a great many counties — search its catalog by county and look under “Land and property”.

Step 3

Find the house on a Sanborn fire insurance map

Sanborn maps were drawn for insurers in roughly 12,000 American towns and cities from 1867 to the 1970s, building by building: the footprint, the number of storeys, whether it was brick, stone or frame, and what it was used for. The Library of Congress Sanborn collection is free online. Find your block on each edition: the first edition that shows your house brackets when it was built.

Step 4

Search the census by address

The federal census lists every household, and from 1880 city enumerators recorded the street and house number. The 1950 census is the most recent open to the public — the National Archives releases a census 72 years after it was taken — and can be searched by name and place; FamilySearch indexes 1850 to 1950 for free. The 1890 census was almost entirely lost to a fire in 1921.

Step 5

Read the city directories

City directories listed residents and their occupations, and later editions included a street-by-street section — the closest thing to a list of everyone who ever lived at your address, renters included, year by year. Your public library's local-history room usually holds a run of them; many are digitised on the Internet Archive and on subscription genealogy sites.

Step 6

Ask the building department, the historical society and the newspapers

The city or county building department may hold the original permit, with a date, an owner and sometimes a builder or architect. If your street is in a historic district, its National Register nomination often dates every house in it. Local historical societies keep photographs, house files and people who already know the answer. And search old newspapers — Chronicling America is free — for your street address in quotation marks: sales, weddings, fires and obituaries all printed addresses.

Before the house

What was here before my house?

Every lot was something else first. The subdivision plat on file with the county shows what your lot was carved out of and when. Earlier Sanborn editions show what stood on the block before your house. The USGS topoView archive has historical topographic maps back to the 1880s, and EarthExplorer has aerial photographs from the 1930s on. In the public-land states, the General Land Office records show the first federal patent for the land — the moment it first became private property.

The shortcut

What Strata does — and what it does not

Strata is an iPhone app that writes a sourced history of the exact spot you are standing on. Stand at the house and press one button.

In Utah County, Utah, it reads the county's recorded land records for the lot itself — when it was platted and from what, when the house went up, and the chain of recorded transfers — and tells that alongside what happened on the ground around it.
Elsewhere in Utah, it reads the county assessor's parcel record: what the lot is and when the building on it was put up.
Everywhere else, it does not read deed books, census returns or permits for your address. It tells you what is recorded on and around the land — heritage registers, historic events, the people and buildings recorded nearby, old maps and the geology underneath — with every record linked to its source.

It is a fast way to learn what your ground has seen. It is not a title search, and the steps above are still how you find every owner and every occupant.

Real pages from the library

A field became a lot in one year flat
A Lehi lot from plat to first sale, read from the Utah County records Lehi, UT A survey line turned into a parcel
A 40-acre parcel surveyed out of farmland, and who has held it since Genola, UT A tent, five acres, and a house that took twelve years
A 1992 subdivision lot beside an 1877 farmhouse Lindon, UT A siege that ended in beheadings on the Provo River
The 1850 Fort Utah siege, carried forward to the subdivision lot on that ground Provo, UT

Questions people ask

How can I find the history of my house by address?

Start with your county assessor's parcel record for the year built and legal description, then trace the deeds backwards at the county recorder. Add the Library of Congress's Sanborn fire insurance maps, the 1880–1950 census, old city directories and the building department's permits, and the house's story usually comes together.

How do I find out who lived in my house before me?

Owners are in the deed chain at the county recorder. Occupants, including renters, are in city directories, which list residents street by street, and in the federal census, which recorded street addresses in cities from 1880; the 1950 census is the latest open to the public.

How old is my house?

The assessor's year built is a starting estimate, not proof. Confirm it with the original building permit, the first Sanborn map edition that shows the building, and the deed where the lot's price jumps because a house went up on it.

What was on my land before my house was built?

Look at the subdivision plat that created your lot, earlier Sanborn editions, USGS historical topographic maps and old aerial photographs. In public-land states the Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office records show the first federal patent for the land.

Can I research my house history for free?

Mostly, yes. Assessor records, many recorder indexes, the Library of Congress Sanborn maps, the 1950 census site, FamilySearch's census indexes and digitised deed books, Chronicling America newspapers and USGS maps are all free online. Older deeds may mean a visit or a small copy fee.

Does Strata show who owned my house?

In Utah County, Utah, yes: Strata reads the county's recorded chain of title for the lot and tells it alongside the history of the ground around it. Elsewhere it does not read deed records; it tells what is recorded on and around the land, with every source linked. It is not a title search.

Researching a house in England, Wales or Scotland? The UK guide covers the Land Registry, the census, tithe maps and Ordnance Survey maps.