House Research Tips & Tricks [Getting Started: Tracking Spreadsheet & Document] Before you know it, you ll be swimming in dates and folio numbers, get ahead of the mess by creating a tracking spreadsheet. Feel free to download my spreadsheet template [http://bit.ly/hpa-spreadsheet], or follow the below guide: Date Grantor Grantee Book Pages Comments I also recommend opening a blank word document, which will serve as a good place to make notes and detail later findings. [Exercise One: Finding Your Deed] As the most recent purchaser of the home, you are the first record for your spreadsheet, so go ahead and fill in the first row using your purchase information by following the below instructions. 1. Navigate to mdlandrec.net and login 2. Select your County from the upper left-hand navigation bar 3. Select Individual Search from the left-hand navigation bar 4. Enter your last name and first name (or initial) and select Search a. If you have a particularly common name, it may be helpful to take advantage of the date feature, which allows you to search by date 5. Review the results by searching for the correct date and name, click on Deed to open your deed 6. Complete the first row of your spreadsheet 1
a. Date: Recorded date of transaction b. Grantor: The person/entity from whom you purchased the property c. Grantee: Your name d. Book & Pages: These will be listed in two places on the results page (in the far right column) and stamped across the top of your deed. e. We ll get to comments later, for now, leave blank. 7. Begin the following row: a. Grantee: The same name as your Grantor See, that wasn t so bad. But, don t close the browser yet, I have one more important thing to point out! Take a minute, if you haven t really looked at your deed before, and familiarize yourself with the language of deeds. Following the opening paragraph, listing the date and names of the grantors and grantees, you ll find a description of your property. There is some important hidden information in this part of the deed: Plats: We ll go into plats later, but go ahead and record the Plat name and book numbers (e.g. Johnson & Wine s Third Addition to Hyattsville Book JWB 5 Folio 660) in your notes document. Lots: In this section you ll learn the exact surveying measurements of your property and the original lot numbers on which your property was built. The most important part of the deed is the previous transfer reference. You won t necessarily find this in newer deeds, but you ll soon see references to the previous sale recorded, here s an example: Being the same property described in liber folio. Once you start to see these, fill in the next line of your spreadsheet with the noted liber (book) and folio (page) numbers be sure to record any initials that appear before these numbers, these were the clerk initials and will help narrow searches. This will be your best clue and guide to keep moving back in time. 2
[Exercise Two: Filling in Your Spreadsheet] For Sales After January 1, 1950 Repeat the above process, working backwards by running an Individual Search of the name of the grantee or if you have the Book and Page numbers, enter those numbers in the Jump to New Volume tool at the top of the search page. For Sales Before January 1, 1950 Enter Book and Page numbers into the Jump to New Volume tool at the top of the search page. Fill in each row of the spreadsheet accordingly: 1. Date: Recorded date of transaction 2. Grantor: The person/entity who sold the property (be sure to record middle initials, if included) 3. Grantee: The name of the person/entity who purchased the property (be sure to record middle initials, if included) 4. Book & Pages: These will be listed in two places on the results page (in the far right column) and stamped across the top of your deed. 5. Comments: If you start noticing interesting things in these deeds they re full of divorce, marriages and deaths if you read closely enough be sure to record these facts in the comment field of your spreadsheet. If your home was built prior to 1941 you ll also eventually stumble upon the old street name and house number. The PDFs of the deeds are downloadable, but you must download them page by page. You can use an application to combine them or establish a numbering and naming system that works for you to keep them organized. In the below example, you ll see the deeds for a home in Edmonston, Maryland tracing from the Calvert family in the 1800s to the Powell family in the mid-1900s. I used the following system GrantorLastName(s)- GranteeLastName(s)-PageNumber. The ordering number (01, 02, 03) refers to the order of purchase. 3
01-Calvert-Carter-Boteler-Smith-220 02-Carter-Boteler-Smith-611 02-Carter-Boteler-Smith-612 02-Carter-Boteler-Smith-613 02-Carter-Boteler-Smith-614 03-McLoughlin-Rogers-85 03-McLoughlin-Rogers-86 03-McLoughlin-Rogers-87 03- McLoughlin-Rogers-88 03-McLoughlin-Rogers-89 04-Rogers-Rusher-613 04-Rogers-Rusher-614 05-Rusher-Rogers-72 05-Rusher-Rogers-73 06-Rogers-Piggott-503 06-Rogers-Piggott-504 07-Piggott-Sikken-80 07-Piggott-Sikken-81 08-Sikken-Merillat-221 08-Sikken-Merillat-222 09-Merillat-Powell-41 09-Merillat-Powell-42 [Exercise Three: A Lesson in Human Error] We all make mistakes and unfortunately the clerks of the Maryland Land Records division were no different. While researching our home, I stumbled over incorrectly recorded liber and folio numbers which momentarily stalled my progress. But, don t give up hope! Here are two easy ways to get back on track. For Sales After January 1, 1950 Run an Individual Search, following the above instructions. For Sales Before January 1, 1950 Use the Active Indices Search. Here s an example: In 1928, our home was sold by Alice Owens Luckey to Samuel & Nannie Peach, but the book and page numbers were recorded incorrectly on that deed. 4
1. Navigate to mdlandrec.net and login 2. Select your County from the upper left-hand navigation bar 3. Select Active Indices from the left-hand navigation bar 4. Select the correct series by identifying the approximate date of the sale and the position of the person for whom you ll be searching a. For this example, I knew the house was built in 1906 and I know the Grantee s name is Alice Owens Luckey, but I don t know the Grantor s name so I pick Land Records, Grantee Index, 1884-1949, MSA CE 23 5. Using the columns, find the row with the right date (1884-1922) and letter (L-M) and click on the Accession No. link, MSA_CE23_5 in this case. a. Reading the search guide i. Frequently Occurring Family Names (Main Document) 1. This section of the document, where you should begin, lists commonly occurring surnames. If your Grantee s name is here, note the page number. If not, move on to the Begins With section. ii. Begins With List (Right-Hand Column) 1. For uncommon surnames, find the closest start and note the page number. b. Luckey is not on the frequently occurring names list, but page 23 is listed for records Lua-Lum 6. Enter 23 in the Jump to new page box on the right-hand control panel, select Go! 7. Review the Index until you find your Grantee s surname, use the next and previous page controls to jump forward and back. On page 24 I find Alice s name, as well as the Grantor s name [Gertrude E Owens al], the year it was recorded [1910], and the liber and folio numbers [59, 469]. And I m back on my way! 5
a. Note: Somewhat infuriatingly, the Index results don t always appear in alphabetical order. Also, do in the Surname column means that person has the same surname as the previous record. [Exercise Four: Paint Your Picture] At this point your spreadsheet should be complete, filled with names and dates of the various parties who have called your house, home. And now comes the fun part, and the hardest to guide. Using the power of the internet and the following databases, search your address(s) and former residents. Keyword Searches Begin by running keyword searches on your address (including former address, if your home was built prior to 1941), names of former residents, etc. Visit the Hyattsville library and use available databases see recommended sites below to run more advanced searches. Many of the useful databases (Newspapers.com, for example) have the option of free trials. 6 Suggested Databases National Archives Newspapers.com* Ancestry.com** Washington Post, Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)** *indicates fee associated with use *indicates PGCMLS offers free access resources (some via the website, some require direct access at library) Census Searches Using the resources available via the National Archives, you can search the names of former residents to learn even more about the former residents how many children they had, what their occupation(s) were, where did they move from, etc. If you are able
to identify the names of their children, you can trace those names and may even be able to find living descendants who remember the home. Connecting with Former Residents In the case of our home, I ve had incredible luck tracking down the former residents. I ve spoken to the grandson of the couple who owned the house in 1930, who spent his summers as a child in the house, we had coffee with a woman who grew up in the house in the 1950s, and have traded emails with a number of other former residents, many of whom are happy to share stories and photos. Each time, I ve traced the family tree down to a phone number, picked up the phone and listened. I suggest recording the conversation, if they re comfortable with it. As a side note, we put our home on the Hyattsville Historic Home Tour in 2016 and were surprised with how many neighbors had additional stories to share about the home. Tell Your Story As you begin to uncover more and more about your home, you can begin to fill in your document with details and the history of your home. Eventually you can assemble a binder of images, newspaper articles, deeds and written documentation that tells the story of your home. [A Few Final Notes] Street Names & House Numbers If your house was built before 1941, be sure to visit Stuart Eisenberg s Google Doc of old street names. Find your existing street and block and identify your pre-war street name. [http://bit.ly/hpa-1941streets] Two ways to find your old house number: 1. Wait until you find it on an old deed. 2. Review old Sanborn Fire maps, using your street name, plat & plot numbers [http://bit.ly/hpa-sanbornmaps] 7
Plats According to the Archives of Maryland, plats are cartography relating to land ownership. They represent in graphic and pictorial terms the boundaries, or metes and bounds, of properties as described in deeds. As such, plats are crucial to understanding and documenting the conveyance of land title in Maryland. You can see your information listed, e.g. Johnson & Wine s Third Addition to Hyattsville Book JWB 5 Folio 660. To find more about your plat, use the following instructions: 1. Navigate to plats.net and select your county from the drop down 2. Enter the book and page numbers and select Search a. Note: if you have letters before the book number (as with ours), these are again initials of the clerk who made the recording. The basic search won t recognize initials, which may require you to use the advanced search 3. You ll see a list of plats, navigate to the one indicated on your deed and open it. You may have to click through and reference another map, but you should be able to identify the correct plat of land upon which your house sits! 8