House history: discover the history of your home

It’s never been easier to start uncovering the history of your house, as more and more archives and resources are being brought online. 

To get started let's get some inspiration from Mary Crisp and Caroline Miller, Executive Producer and Series Producer of the popular house history BBC programme 'A House Through Time'. Family Tree's Helen interviewed Mary and Caroline in 2021 as the fourth series of the TV show was about to be broadcast for the first time…

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Where to start your house history research

Discover three key places to delve into the history of your house, with Melanie Backe-Hansen's expert guide.

Local history

When starting the journey into researching the history of your home, the first place to look is the local history. A house does not sit in isolation and the history of the street, as well as the parish, village, or town, will all play a role.

The local history will provide details about where to find sources, but also clues to influences and events that might have had an impact on the house. It could offer reasons for when and why the house was built, as well as the likely former residents:

• Was the house part of a manor or landed estate
• Was it within a rural community or built during the Industrial Revolution?
• Was it built due to the construction of the railways or post-war homes for heroes?

Start with the Victoria County History also found on British History Online, while also looking at other county, town, and parish histories. In addition, there is a fantastic network of local history groups and the British Association for Local History.

Maps

One of the best sources found online are maps. There are several for each county and parish, but one of the best map sources are those produced by Ordnance Survey. In particular, the 25-inch scale maps produced during the late 19th century and then periodically updated throughout the 20th century, which offer clear details of houses, providing a wonderful visual history over time.

The historic maps for Great Britain can be viewed via the National Library of Scotland or Old Maps. There will also be a range of other maps, such as estate or manorial maps. In addition, Tithe maps and apportionments, during the 1840s, and Enclosure maps and awards, largely during the late 18th century, can provide further details, including the names of owners and occupants.

Who lived in my house in 1939?

The 1939 Register (England and Wales) has become a valuable additional source for the house historian in recent years. Much like the census, it was taken in September 1939 to provide personal details for ration books and ID cards. While it does have some limitations; it does not include everyone and some listings are still redacted, it does provide a wonderful snapshot of those in a house at the beginning of the Second World War.

It also offers a fantastic additional element in providing details of those engaged in war work, such as air raid wardens, ambulance drivers, and more. Explore the 1939 Register at Ancestry and FindMyPast.

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Three essential records for house history research

Kathryn Feavers has worked on the house history research for the BBC television show ‘A House Through Time'. Here, she shares three of the go-to records she uses in her research.

Newspapers on British Newspaper Archive

Datespan useful: particularly 19th & 20th century

It is surprising how frequently addresses were publicised in the 19th century. The collection is especially useful for birth, marriage and death announcements, also advertisements. Also, sometimes the name of the person you’re looking for can just pop up in a newspaper search so this can give you a starting point into their
life story.

I love the British Newspaper Archive. If I were allowed to access only one website for the rest of my life it would be the British Newspaper Archive. I’m not convinced this series [A House Through Time] would be possible without it. It has everything!

• Birth, death and marriage 

  announcements can help you out with genealogical brick walls

• Rental notices for a property sometimes include its value and occasionally give descriptions of the layout

• And once you start searching residents’ names you don’t know what you might find!

The Census and 1939 Register

Datespan useful: 1841-1911 (1921 coming 2022 for England, Wales and Scotland)

The census (and we’ll include the 1939 National Register here too) gives you names, ages, origins, relationships and occupations, the amount of information increasing each decade as you work forwards in time. The 1939 National Register also provides a full date of birth, which can be useful.

What’s not to love about the census? I only wish is that the census had been taken every year! My favourite thing about census returns for ‘A House Through Time’  is that they are usually the only way we can see the ‘other’ residents – the servants, the visitors, adopted children etc.

National Library of Scotland online maps

Datespan useful: OS particularly, from early 19th century

Examining historic maps allows you to see how the local area has changed over time (especially Ordnance Survey maps). They are also useful for working out house numbering.

Personally, I always start with a map when researching a new house. I pull up a recent map and compare it with the National Library of Scotland maps going backwards. If it’s a 19th century house, this can help give you a sense of when it might have been built. Seeing how its surroundings have changed can also give you clues as to whether the house number may have changed, whether it has been divided and, in some cases, you can see how it has been extended/altered over time.

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Five websites for tracing the history of your house

Mike Nutley spotlights some useful websites to help you learn a little more about the history of your home.

1. Old Maps Online

Old Maps Online indexes over 400,000 old maps, making them searchable by place name and directing you to the sites where they can be viewed.

2. Britain From Above

Aerial photographs are a great way to get a sense of how areas have changed. One of the most fascinating resources of this type is Britain From Above – this hosts images from the Aerofilms collection, which was started by two WWI veterans in 1919, and ran until 2006.

3. Tuck DB Postcards

The TuckDB site is a database of postcards published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, the world’s largest publisher of postcards in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s also worth searching eBay for antique postcards – there’s an amazing number out there.

4. A Street Near You

A Street Near You maps the impact of the First World War on local communities around the world by matching those who died to their address.

5. Chimni

As you start collecting all these stories and images, it’s useful to have somewhere online to keep them. Chimni is a ‘home management site’ which also allows you to build a timeline for your house, and offers loads of hints and tips to help in your searches.

Websites originally published in Michael Nutley's 'Getting Started With House History' article in Family Tree magazine.

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How old is my house?

Whether you’re curious about the history of your own home or want to find out when an ancestor’s house was built, there are lots of ways to delve into house history. Read on to find out what to look for to help you:

• narrow down a date range
• clues about previous inhabitants
• what the neighbourhood was like in years gone by
• find old photos of your house

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How to find old photos of your house

A big part of local history is exploring how an area has changed over the centuries or decades and a great way to do this is through old photographs and postcards.

Read on for some great online and offline resources that the FT team have found helpful in researching their own street stories.

Community-based resources

Find out whether your village has a heritage or local history group as many such groups hold archive photograph collections either online or offline. British Association for Local History has listings of regional societies.

Try a search on Facebook and/or Google for local history groups relevant to your area. There are some very active and helpful groups out there, sharing memories, photos and ideas on places to carry out your research.

Old postcards

You might be surprised to find that your street, however ‘ordinary’ it seems to you is pictured on an old postcard. Our Victorian and Edwardian ancestors saw postcards as the text messages of their day and there were literally tens of thousands of local views available for the UK along. Tuck DB Postcards and Francis Frith have good selections, as does eBay.

Your local studies library or archive

Once the Covid-19 restrictions are a thing of the past, take a trip to your nearest local studies library (sometimes part of your local museum or a larger library) or archive. These repositories usually have collections of old photographs, prints and maps donated by historians and other local people over the years. The staff there might also be able to point you in the direction of newspaper cuttings or land records relating to your street.

What Was There website

What Was There invites people around the world to upload their old photo collections to allow anyone to explore a particular area’s past. Once you or anyone else uploads a photo it’s linked to Google Maps, allowing you to easily explore a particular area.

At the moment there are over 1,000 photos relating to the UK and the website is a work in progress so check back peridocially.

Country-specific websites

If you’re searching for a particular street in England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales, try the following:

• Historic England 
• National Library of Ireland photo collections 
• SCRAN (part of Historic Environment Scotland) 
• National Library of Wales photo collections 

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Unless your house is a new-build, the chances are that it’s been lived in by someone else apart from you. Exploring the lives of the past residents is a great project, allowing you to use a mixture of online and offline resources to take a trip back into your home’s history. And even if you are the very first occupants of your home... you can always research the land on which it was built. When tracing a place there are always new discoveries to be made.

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Who lived in my house before me?

Unless your house is a new-build, the chances are that it’s been lived in by someone else apart from you. Exploring the lives of the past residents is a great project, allowing you to use a mixture of online and offline resources to take a trip back into your home’s history.

And even if you are the very first occupants of your home... you can always research the land on which it was built. When tracing a place there are always new discoveries to be made.

Plot your home on a historic map

FindMyPast has a great (free) house history map tool here that allows you to type in your England or Wales postcode and be taken through to a page that shows your location. You can choose to view the locality in modern times, mid twentieth century or nineteenth century.

Explore the 1939 Register – discover your house’s inhabitants at the eve of World War II

With a subscription to Findmypast you can see who was in your house when the 1939 Register was taken. For the background to this register click here. 

(If you don't wish to subscribe, when you get taken to the subscription page, scroll right down to the bottom of the page, and here you can just make a one-off payment to view one record).

You can then see the name, age and occupation of each inhabitant and also browse the households of other streets within that same postcode area. The 1939 Register for Scotland is not currently available online but you can order an official extract from National Records Scotland - details here.

Look through the electoral registers

Electoral registers are helpful if whoever lived in your house before you was eligible to vote. Remember that voting qualifications have varied over the past two centuries - so prior to 1928 you will not find all the adult inhabitants of your home necessarily recorded, as not all were eligible until then.

You can find the largest collection of electoral rolls on FindMyPast. FindMyPast has worked with the British Library to digitise the 1832-1965 electoral registers, which are accessible via subscription/payment as mentioned above, or you can explore these for free at the British Library’s reading rooms. See the Library’s webinar on exploring these records here.

For information regarding electoral registers for Scotland, the National Library of Scotland has information about access to past registers here.

Note that you’ll need to use the address rather than names, as the electoral registers are not indexed.

Track down your title deeds

Your house title deeds, usually kept by you or the solicitor who handled the sale of the property, should have details of each buyer and seller during the history of the house and may even record details of who owned the land the house was originally built on.

Ask the neighbours…

• To find out about inhabitants within living memory, why not ask your neighbours?
• Try to find out who’s lived on the street the longest and ask if they’d be willing to have a quick chat.
• Or you could try asking on the community pages of your town or village’s social media sites.

Browse street & trade directories

For properties dating to the early 1800s onwards, trade directories can help you to pinpoint former inhabitants or even point to a change of use – perhaps your home was once a shop, perhaps it was once home to one family, but it now apartments, or vice versa.

These directories, which are usually kept at local history libraries and record offices, list the inhabitants of an area’s streets at yearly (or less frequent) intervals. 

You can find a range of online directories for England and Wales at the University of Leicester here and Scottish directories are listed here. Remember to explore your subscription sites for collections of trade directories they may very well have too.

Don't forget the census!

The census is not just a family history goldmine; it's also invaluable for house history too.

The census is a great source for research, providing the name, age, occupation and place of birth for each of the inhabitants of your home in years gone by. The first census of use for this purpose is 1841 and they have been taken every ten years since (with the exception of 1941). Because of privacy rules, the most recent census you can access is 1921 for England, Wales and Scotland; 1911 for Ireland.

Explore the census at family history websites such as Ancestry, FindMyPast, MyHeritage and The Genealogist and you can view England, Wales, Channel Islands and Isle of Man free of charge at The UK National Archives in Kew, and at FamilySearch centres around the world. Remember, too, FreeCEN, where you can see census transcripts free of charge on this work in progress website.

For Scottish census images see ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk and for Ireland (limited census years) see the National Archives of Ireland census website.

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Researching the history of modern homes and streets

If you live in a new build area, there’s still so much you can do to research the history of the area.

• Investigate what use the land was put to in the decades and centuries before your home and street were built. Whether formerly a field or a bombsite, the land will have a story to tell.
   
• Think about the street names and house names. Sometimes you may assume that they are just attractive names. But by studying old maps and directories you may find that that a road name ties into that of an old field marked on a tithe map, or that there was a house on that site, with the same name, many years before.
   
• When searching electoral registers, to learn about the inhabitants of your home or street, be mindful of their privacy when searching in recent decades – for instance removing personal names if publishing your findings.
   
• Read the reports and commissions that have been written about your area; these will often detail what is deemed of special and historic interest about your local area and they may mention the purpose and intention of new developments too. These are all interesting current information to store – and will in time become part of the history of the area.
   
• Have a think about the precise era your home was built in – is it post-war building boom (as part of the plan to replace the 2 million homes destroyed in Britain in WW2); or perhaps part of the large-scale social housing built through the 1950s and 60s?
   
• Track down old photos and magazines. Seeing photos of your street in past decades will help you see how it’s evolved over time: how few cars were parked on the road; the change in tastes of gates, fences and flower beds. And magazines, from the post-war consumer boon of the 50s and 60s, say, will give you ideas about the furniture, fittings, appliances and décor that your home would have had, when it was first built.

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How do I keep my house history records organised?

Your time is precious and one of the best ways of making the most of it, is to keep organised. As with genealogy, house history research is much better undertaken with a solid system to keep your findings recorded well. Here are a few suggestions to help you do just this.

Find a system that works for you

You know this already: it doesn’t matter whether you use dedicated software or a good old-fashioned notebook; what does matter is that you make an intelligible and thorough record of the details you uncover.

Some researchers prefer using a notebook, jotting down their findings as they go. Other people prefer to use a dedicated system, such as Chimni, for recording their research digitally, so that it is readily able to be publicised and shared out to social media.

Get organised... and stay organised

To ensure you’re keeping organised as you go:

• Keep a note of all your sources (where and when you accessed the information, the url and archive references)
• Sort by date – whether using a paperbased or digital record-keeping system, creating a timeline will help you easily see periods that you need to trace and help you identify records that might be available to help you for that period.
• Set up a to-do (or to-do later) list – this is one of the best ways of keeping your research on track, as it provides a place for you to record other things you’d like to find out

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What were our ancestors' homes like?

Social historian and genealogist Adèle Emm takes a look at what life was like in the two-up-two-down terraced houses that many of our ancestors called home. 

"I live in Cottonopolis, the birthplace (yes, this is debatable for those of you in Derbyshire) of the Industrial Revolution and the enormous Manchester railway/cotton goods warehouses, railway hotels and thousands (millions?) of Victorian terraced houses are my daily eye candy. When Stockport’s famous landmark, the railway viaduct, was completed in 1840, it was the largest brick-built construction in Europe.​

"However much we gasp at the detail with which the Victorians embellished their buildings, it is the countrywide terraced workers’ housing which is testament to how much we owe past builders. What would my inner city Manchester two-up two-down be worth if magic-carpeted to Chiswick or Chelsea?

"In 1875, the Government passed the Public Health Act whereby all new housing had to be built to a high standard - even just the two-ups two-downs that most of us have lived in at some time or known someone who did. And there had to be space wide enough between back alleys and road for access to remove night soil by local authorities – those little ginnels between the rows.

"When first built, the two rooms downstairs constituted kitchen with range and a front parlour.  ‘Posh’ houses had three feet of garden at the front; cheaper houses led straight onto the pavement. The parlour at the front was for visitors and high days and holidays. The kitchen at the back overlooked the paved yard where washing was hung on Mondays and led to the privy. Come out of the back door, turn right or left and there it was, squares of newspaper for the essentials strung up next to the ‘unmentionable’.   

"My great aunt had a ‘gazunder’ (the chamber pot which goes under the bed) so, if taken short in the night, she needn’t go out in the cold. Upstairs were two bedrooms, one to the back for the children and one to the front.

"When sitting on a train outside many a city or town, the evidence of former privies is everywhere.  Many are the shed, or incorporated with government subsidies during the 1960s into a kitchen extension or downstairs bathroom. Many are still a privy! 

"Whilst researching my great x 2 grandfather, I discovered he and his large family moved between 1877 (when they were built) and 1881 into a terraced house in Ashton under Lyne. Instead of sharing facilities with scores of other families, they now had running water and their own toilet; it must have been like moving into a palace. That house and its neighbours are still there.

"Donning my cynical hat, how many of today’s glass and concrete confections will be standing in 140 years?"

PHOTO: Endeavour Buildings Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire, built 1877.  In 1881, Adèle's widower joiner 2x great grandfather plus eight children were squeezed in one house. Photo taken 1997. © Adèle Emm