22 September 2021
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Find out how to create a house history logbook with Chimni, to keep all your research material in one place - and create a unique record of your home for future generations.
Digital records have made the job of tracing a house history so much easier. As more records are made available online, better ways of navigating them and finding sources are appearing.
But have you ever wondered about the best way to save and display your digital house history research? All those useful links, and web resources that took ages to delve through and locate. How best to categorise, order and display the links and references into the core of a house history? How to do justice to alll those digital images and documents you have buried in folders that are an integral part of telling your house history>
How to record your house history research
Chimni is a web tool for people who want to manage and control of their home's data in the increasingly digitised 21st century. Not only can you record house details for the present day, Chimni also makes it easy to record, preserve and share historical documents and photographs relating to your house, adding new information as you find it.
Chimni history logbooks are private and secure records of your house history – the only people able to view them will be you and anyone you invite to view it.
Watch this video introduction to find out more...
Create a record of your house through time...
Maps, photos, surveys and artwork are also being digitised rapidly and social media has made the ‘unfindable’ findable. With Chimni you can turn your house history research into a unique, living record of your home through time with links to relevant sources.
Very often the sources that we use as family historians also allow copies to be made, shared and included in house histories. As a result, keeping web links and references to the digital sources of this material has become an important part of the records we are all building.
Whether you are running your own research or working with a historian, building a Chimni logbook as part of your house history project allows this digital ‘footprint’ to be captured. The ‘Events Timeline’ enables key events and actions to be recorded and displayed, and links to the source materials included.
Your Chimni logbook
A Chimni logbook allows you to create an online record of your house history that can also include records of work done on the property over time, and links to other online sources such as local councils and the Land Registry. More importantly, they can be used as part of the legal record of your homes if you ever choose to sell. (See this article on Rightmove about including historic data in a house sale.)
A digital logbook doesn’t replace the magic of a printed record, but adds an extra layer of interactivity and richness to a house history and facilitates easy sharing of material. Over time, Chimni will be adding networking and sharing functions, as well as summary pages that can be published as part of local area web sites or ‘One-Place’ studies.
Set up a Chimni logbook today and begin experimenting with how to digitise the digital fruits of your hard work! Click here to set up a logbook