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HM Land Registry and the Price Paid record, the 1841–1921 census and electoral registers, the listed-buildings register, the London Metropolitan Archives, Goad fire-insurance plans, and parish records reaching back centuries — a guide to tracing a London house.
May 30, 2026 · 5 min read
A step-by-step guide to every free source — ACRIS deeds, PLUTO, the 1940s and 1980s tax photos, the census, old newspapers, the NYPL map division, and landmark status — for tracing who built your house and who lived in it.
May 28, 2026 · 5 min read
Deeds tell you who owned a house. To learn who actually lived there — the families, the boarders, the occupations and origins — you need the census, city directories, newspapers, and a little detective work. Here's how.
May 27, 2026 · 4 min read
The free 1901 and 1911 censuses — a model of open data — Griffith's Valuation, the Tithe Applotment Books, the Registry of Deeds, and the records lost in the 1922 Public Record Office fire: a guide to tracing a Dublin house against the grain of Irish archival loss.
May 27, 2026 · 4 min read
The City of Toronto open-data portal, Ontario's OnLand land registry, the free census to 1931, the Toronto Public Library and City of Toronto Archives, fire-insurance plans, and the Toronto Star archive — a guide to tracing a Toronto house.
May 25, 2026 · 4 min read
Vancouver's open-data portal, BC's LTSA land registry, the free census to 1931, the City of Vancouver Archives and VanMap, fire-insurance plans, and the heritage register — how to trace a Vancouver house from a Kitsilano character home to an East Van bungalow.
May 24, 2026 · 4 min read
Read enough deeds, censuses, and maps across a single block and the big forces of American history — immigration, the streetcar, redlining, white flight, gentrification — stop being abstractions. Here's what the records show, and how to read them honestly.
May 20, 2026 · 4 min read