RESEARCHING YOUR PERIOD HOME
Updated: Sep 8, 2022
Have you ever wondered who has lived in your home before you? My husband and I fell in love with our Victorian era home and I've been down a rabbit hole, researching the history of its residents and the local area. It’s been a little project of mine which has been very interesting and rewarding. I’ve learnt a lot along the way. So if you’re interested in researching your own home, here are some top tips:
Start with an historical title search via Landata (https://www.landata.online) for past owners. This includes a small fee.
Join your local library, to get free access to AncestryLibrary (https://www.ancestrylibrary.com.au). Ancestry.com provides access to so much information including voting registers up until 1980. These contain valuable information such as first names, other family members who are living at the same location, and sometimes the occupation of the resident.
Join your state library. The State Library of Victoria (https://www.slv.vic.gov.au) has historical residential directories and maps which have been invaluable. It also runs free informative online events on researching your historical home or family history.
Join the National Library of Australia (https://www.nla.gov.au). Among other things, it provides free access to historical newspapers and gazettes, which you can also access directly via Trove (https://trove.nla.gov.au/) . Please note that some publications, like the Age, only goes up to 1954.
Contact your local historical societies, which in my case is Surrey Hills and Box Hill. Sometimes the historical society will do some research for a free. The Box Hill Historical Society in particular has been very helpful and provided information I would have not been able to find otherwise. You can read about it in my post: Pandemic Hit Home.
In Victoria, some historical societies, such as the Surrey Hills Historical Society, use the Victorian Collections (https://victoriancollections.net.au) to catalogue their images. In addition to the State Library of Victoria, this is a great resource for photos and other images if you live in the state of Victoria. Another good website to try if you're in Victoria is the Public Record Office of Victoria (https://prov.vic.gov.au/) which contains wills, probates, rate books and other records, Many records still need to be digitised, but you can review to view the records in person, or pay a small fee to have them scanned.
Search the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Victoria (https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/research-and-family-history/search-your-family-history), and NSW (https://www.nsw.gov.au/family-and-relationships/family-history-search) online for free. I found the search function on the Victorian register invaluable, often finding information that was not on Acenstry.com. You can request historical certificates from all the state registers for Births, Deaths and Marriages for a small fee. The benefit of obtaining these certificates is the potential for additional information, such as occupations, maiden names, names of parents and locations of events. Keep in mind that access to historical records are limited to births that occurred more than 100 years ago, deaths that occurred more than 30 years ago and marriages that were registered 60 or more years ago. These limits may differ slightly from state to state
Look up cemetery records are also invaluable. While access to death certificates held at state registries are limited to those that are more than 30 years old, photos of gravestones are not. These often contain dates of birth and death, and sometimes of loved ones left behind. There are a number of website that provide this information but I found Find a Grave (https://www.findagrave.com) the best.
Look up death notices in newspapers. As stated above, historical newspapers can be accessed via Trove. However, if you're having trouble finding death notices, you may want to first use the death notice register called The Ryerson Index (https://ryersonindex.org), which is helpful in narrowing down the search.
Interview previous residents if they are still alive, or their children, if they are not. Previous residents may have photos, stories or records that are not publicly available anywhere else. If you don't have their contact details, you may be able to obtain them from neighbours who have lived in your street for a long time. If they have an unusual surname, you may be able to find them on social media. Fortunately I was able to interview previous owners Michel Canetti and the Peniston-Birds. I was also able speak to the grand daughter of John & Clara Crocker and the son of Frank Vincze. Most people will be glad to hear from you, as you share something in common with them.
Search the National Archives of Australia (https://www.naa.gov.au) which has lots of information, such as immigration and military records, among other things. Many records are still to be digitalised, however you can request to see them in person, or have them scanned for a small fee. This is how I located the photos of Frank and Elizabeth Vincze.
Search for military records. In addition to the National Archives of Australia, you can also search the Australian War Memorial (https://www.awm.gov.au), which may contain different or additional information.
Utilise international family history and other free websites. Many family history websites provide free trial periods, such as Archives (https://www.archives.com). I've also used some free discussion boards such as Tapatalk (https://www.tapatalk.com) on which I found a specific discussion on family name.
Are you still not sure where to start when researching your house? If you're interested in finding out more about your period home, I'm happy to research the history of your home for a small fee. If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you via the contacts page.