1) Wear easy to clean clothes as many old land registers and deed books are afflicted with red leather rot.

2) Expect you won't get as far, or as fast, you thought in chaining the title.

3) Do you have a clear idea of how chaining a title works?

4) Take good notes, even for dead ends trails. I am often surprised when a previous "dead end" proves to be just a stepping stone I couldn't see where to place, at first.

5) Start with what you know, and work backwards.

6) GrantOr (seller) is the "O"ld owner; grantEE (buyer) is the n"E"w owner.

7) It's worth it to get copies of each of your deeds, as sometimes in the body of text there are references to neighboring properties. These can be important because you can often bridge stubborn gaps in your chain by chaining the neighboring properties which, in turn, may have references to previous owners of yours. This can sometimes get you back on track.

And, aside from deed chains, there are mortgage, liens, census (both people and agricultural)data and also tax records. Plus probate, marriage records, birth and death and military. Not to mention insurance records and maps (in more urban areas, generally). In rural areas town records for road maintenance may also contain clues to the identity of property owners. And then there are newspapers, private genealogical research and in the mid to late 19th century, published local histories where you can read about the more prominent citizens (who paid to have entries about themselves).

You'll be busy for a while!

Molly~

1) Wear easy to clean clothes as many old land registers and deed books are afflicted with red leather rot.

Never thought of that.

2) Expect you won't get as far, or as fast, you thought in chaining the title.

Probably, although my house was built in 1920 and Rochester has kept good records since 1868.

3) Do you have a clear idea of how chaining a title works?

I've done it on line as far back as the online records go, which is not all that far. I used our deed to find the PO's deed, and the PO before him, and the one before that. I know that family moved in in the 50s, and there was one sale in the 40s. The 30s might be a little sticky because the bank took the house during the Depression, but the records are there.

4) Take good notes, even for dead ends trails. I am often surprised when a previous "dead end" proves to be just a stepping stone I couldn't see where to place, at first.

Absolutely!

5) Start with what you know, and work backwards.

That's what I'm going to do with the deeds, and the insurance records which apparently are quite extensive and complete for this area.

6) GrantOr (seller) is the "O"ld owner; grantEE (buyer) is the n"E"w owner.

I wondered. Thanks! :-)

7) It's worth it to get copies of each of your deeds, as sometimes in the body of text there are references to neighboring properties. These can be important because you can often bridge stubborn gaps in your chain by chaining the neighboring properties which, in turn, may have references to previous owners of yours. This can sometimes get you back on track.

I want to, if for no other reason than having a complete record. This house was built in 1920 on the site of a nursery, and earlier than that I'm not awfully interested in. I want to know about the house.

And, aside from deed chains, there are mortgage, liens, census (both people and agricultural)data and also tax records. Plus probate, marriage records, birth and death and military. Not to mention insurance records and maps (in more urban areas, generally). In rural areas town records for road maintenance may also contain clues to the identity of property owners. And then there are newspapers, private genealogical research and in the mid to late 19th century, published local histories where you can read about the more prominent citizens (who paid to have entries about themselves).

I don't think it'll get to that level, although you never know!

You'll be busy for a while!

It sounds like a good project for cold, snowy days.

Vicki

Depending on how the records are indexed, check out the easements. Both dominent and servient easements should be recorded.
We once had a neighbor who did't check. They bought planning on building an addition which would have been on our egress & ingress easement. They got red tagged. Needless to say they were very upset.

Am I missing something? YOu can pay 100 for a title search in IL and it's all done for you whenever you transact property. We have the entire history from 1912 when we purchased our house. I would talk to an attorney they do these all the time.

Oh, yeah. Here they go back 40 years when you buy a house, and sure enough, I have names back to the middle 50s. But the house was built in 1920, and I want to go back further. Why should I pay someone $100 to do it, and let them have all the fun?

Plus, it's a lot more than just a title search; I'm looking at the Landmark Society library for pictures and surveys, at City Hall for building permits and at the city public library for insurance directories.

The title search is part of knowing your old house, certainly there is much much more.

I'm considering calling the person who lived here from the mid-50s to the mid-80s, to ask him some questions about what was done to the house while he lived here.

A title search is not necessarily the same information, though in many cases it's an excellent jumping off place. The purpose of a title search is to make sure there are no impediments in the previous owner's right to transfer the property that might interfere with the new or current owner's ownership.

And a title search may only go back as far as whatever title insurance company feels is enough to assess the risk of issuing the policy. This will vary between underwriters and local areas. I had title insurance when I first bought the house because the bank wanted to make their interest was OK. The title company only went back a few decades even though the records exist back into the mid-1700's.

If you ask a title company to chain your deed back as far possible I expect it would cost more than the standard title insurance search. And as Vicki pointed out, why pay someone to have your fun?

Molly~

The ease of the search in records depends a great deal on how they are indexed. That varies form state to state and even county to county. Add to that the older records are hand written by different people with different styles of penmanship. It's very satisfying to figure it all out and get the information you're looking for.

Oh ok - I think that our title search was a full one because we have all the original building information even though it was 1912.

We actually searched our paperwork to determine if it was ever a Sears home, and a few other things. Unfortunately being a two flat home title search didn't really mean much as the owners didn't inhabit the whole building.

Thanks for explaining - sounds like you're up for an adventure!

I got started today. I looked at plats for our area (two of which I had already seen online), and found that in 1910 our area wasn't even on the map, in 1918 the streets had been laid out and lot lines established and in 1926 the street was pretty well built. Our house in 1926 was its original rectangular footprint. By 1935 one of the additions had been put on. The Sanborn Insurance Map of 1938 shows the second addition, but oddly, the building permit office shows only one building permit, in 1921 to construct a garage! I've only phoned the permit office; I'll go down there and see if they can pull some microfiche for me.

I also went through years of the City Guide and have what I believe is a reasonably complete list of owners/occupants from 1923 to the present. This is going to make the deed search easier, I think.

Tomorrow, City Hall for the permit office and, time permitting, the county clerk to track down deeds.

This was fun!

some day we'll need to get a tutorial from you!! I think ours was built in 1925-1926.

- Mike

Hey, Mike, any time. I went to the Landmark Society today and they pulled some info on the neighborhood for me, including a color photocopy of one of the Brown's original sales brochures from 1920 or so! They have all of the basic references that the public library does, including the plat maps and Sanborn Insurance Maps, as well as all of the City Directories, so I'd go straight there if I were you.

I am bummed to discover that my perennial garden is only about 15 - 20 years old, though.

vjrnts, I live in Rochester also (well a suburb, but really close) and have done a lot of research on my c1850 house (although I am not finished yet)
feel free to email me if you have questions. I have found that there are a lot of places to do research.
Maybe we can help eachother out!!!
-renee

Hi, Renee, yeah you're out west of us. In that mis-pronounced town, that tells the native from the recent arrivee!

So far I've checked at the Landmark Society and the Rundel Library. My next stop (when I have time again, I'm back to work after the holidays) is the city building office to check on building permits. Sadly, when they moved from Main Street to the present City Hall, they decided to purge a lot of old records that no one could possible be interested in any more (!!!!!!). There is now a state law that says that they can't do that, but twenty years ago, nada. So I hope that I can find some permits attached to our house, although 70 years ago people still winked at permits. Then the County Clerk's office for deeds. And then I'll see where I want to go next!

You know, you can check some of the deeds on line now. It only goes back to like the 70's though.. However if you are just starting to chain that may be helpful and save you some time.
I know what you mean about finding time. They should have some night hours for the county clerk office!
Check the libraweb photo's also. i found plat books that have my house or the land the house was on from 1820's to the 1930's and they are really interesting. Also I just ordered high quality copies of all the plat book maps from them. They are like 2 dollars a piece and they send you them on CD's. I plan to have them printed out and framed and then I can show people the progression of the land and the house and stuff. I think the maps were the most important thing for my research. Right now I am stuck at 1860. I know the house was built before then but I havn't had time to go to the county clerk to get the two deeds that I need to look at.

I belong to the landmark society but haven't gone there yet.
Were they very helpful? Do they have information on the suburbs??? I live really close to the city limits so I am not far out there.
-renee

Some times you can tell when the house was built by the tax records. The taxes for my grandmothers house jumped from $2 to $10.

Hi, Renee'

Yeah, I've checked all the deeds back to the 80s. I think they go back to '84 or '86. There was one family who lived here from sometime in the 50s to '86, and I have their transfer of deed to the next people. For anything more, I'll have to go to the County Clerk.

And the plat photos! Yes, I found those in the Fall. They are fascinating! I didn't know you could order copies of them. (Good present for my husband's birthday.) You might want to look at the Sanborn Insurance Maps, too. They have them at the Rundel Library and at the Landmark Society. Either one is easy to reach.

And glassquilt, that's a good idea. I know the approximate dates of the additions to my house (within a couple of years) and the tax records might help me narrow it down.

Once you find the names of everyone who owned your house, it's fun to try to find descendents. It took us about a year, and we actually met the grandchildren of the family who owned our house between 1921-1958. And about a year after that, we discovered that the first family in the house (1910-1921) died out after their only child was killed tragically in 1948. The internet makes all this a lot easier. City Directories are a good source, too.

Next year I want to have a big party and invite everybody ever associated with the house.

WOW I just found the Rochester city directories on line!

http://www.libraryweb.org/rochcitydir/citydirectories.html

How does one find the tax information. I wrote the town about it but they haven't gotten back yet.

-renee

very cool. It looks like vjrnts and I will have to wait until they start digitizing the 1920s!

- Mike

on second thought .... our neighborhood was not part of the city in the early 20th century- oh well!

- Mike

on second thought .... our neighborhood was not part of the city in the early 20th century- oh well!

No, no no! I checked the directories themselves at Rundel, and our street is listed from about 1919 on. (There are only about five house numbers listed in 1919.) Nah, I have a long list of names of people (and their professions) from about 1923 on. It's probably not perfectly accurate (sometimes houses were listed as "vacant" when they weren't), but it's pretty complete.

The Landmark Society has a set of city directories at their library in Corn Hill, and the Rundel Library has a set in their "Local History" section on the second floor of the old building on South.