Customer Reviews

Discovering the History of Your House: And Your Neighborhood

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Everyone can find interest in researching the history of past inhabitants of their house. This book gives step-by-step instructions to identify the names of past inhabitants, how to locate them or their relatives, and learn facts about their lives as well as obtain old photos showing your house in previous incarnations. One can learn about hidden mysteries ranging from hidden rooms to why in the world did they choose THAT interior decoration, etc.

For inspiration I recommend reading "If These Walls Had Ears," written by James Morgan. It is what you might write when you complete research like this.

Many people are familiar with the idea of tracing your family roots, and learning what history surrounds you. But, this book tells you how you can trace the history of the house you live in! Providing a great deal of suggestions and courses of action, this book tells you how you can find out all sorts of wonderful information on your house. If you are interested in the history of small things, then I highly recommend that your get this very useful book!

If you've wondered how old your home is, what it used to look like, if those stories you heard are true, this is the book for you. Start with any chapter that piques your interest -- you're sure to find useful tips and things you never thought of, like using a metal detector in your yard. I found many good strategies and I've been researching homes since 1995. Green explains sources of information and how to access them, nationwide. Her glossary explains in simple language the legal terms you're likely to encounter. An excellent general introduction to the topic.

Discovering The History Of Your House And Your Neighborhood by noted house historian Betsy J. Green is a fun, simple, and "user friendly" step-by-step guide to researching the history of a private home. From surfing the Internet, to following a paper trail, Discovering The History Of Your House is a welcome and highly recommended primer to finding out everything you want or need to know about the architectural history of your own home, but didn't know who or how to ask.

Betsy's book is a well written, helpful resource book for tracking down the history of your house. It is full of useful suggestions and examples for finding past information on the land, the building(s), as well as the people that owned or may have lived in or on the property. I plan on following the advice in the book to research the history of my childhood home in Amesbury, Massachusetts. A great addition to any genealogy library.