Every Place Has a Story

Who lived in your house — in 10 (mostly easy) steps

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1710 Grant Street ca.1905 CVA SGN 422
1710 Grant Street ca.1905 CVA SGN 422

In some ways, researching your home is like an archeological dig. But with a bit of patience you can find out who built your home, who lived there before you, who was murdered there, who died of a comfortable old age, perhaps, even, who’s haunting it now.

1. City Directories:

I always start with the city directories, and now thanks to the Vancouver Public Library, all of B.C. is online up from 1860 to 1955. After 1955 you can find actual copies at the Vancouver Archives, at the North Vancouver Museum and Archives in Lynn Valley or on microfilm at the VPL. The directories will tell you the name of past residents, owners as well as their occupation. The directories also give information about the population of the time, the business climate and advertisements for businesses—it’s a bit like a tourist brochure.

2. Census:census

Once you’ve discovered the people who lived in your house you can find out all sorts of great information through the census records. If nothing else it will give you a whole new appreciation why you slog through the forms every five years.

3. Ownership Title:

If you’re flush with cash you can always visit the Land Titles Office in New Westminster. If you provide them with a legal description (District, Block, Lot), and payment, they will provide you with details on ownership history

4. Vital Events Records:

death cert

It gets better every year with birth, marriage and death certificates onlineMore often than not, you can even find copies of the actual death certificates. This death certificate, for example, tells you that Errol Flynn died in Vancouver in 1959, that he’d been here six days, that he lived in New York City, was a motion picture actor from Tasmania and that he was married to Patrice Wymore (and that’s just the top half) 

5. Heritage Registers:

If your house has historical merit (and this includes mid-century homes) it may be listed on a Heritage Register. Most municipalities have them and they are almost all online now. Your local city hall will also have a file on your house, and don’t forget to check your local archives.

6. The Vancouver Building Register:

It’s worth checking to see if your house is on the Vancouver Building Register. This register lists tons of  information and sources for residential and commercial buildings in Vancouver.

7.  Building Permits

building permits

 

Heritage Vancouver took on the herculean task of transcribing the original handwritten registers from Vancouver Archives. As of the end of March 2015 they had just under 33,000  pre-1922 building permits online in a searchable database. Heritage Vancouver also says that if you dig through the water permits at Vancouver Archives you’ll find additional clues to your house’s completion date.

 

8. Heritage House Tours:

It’s worth a shot, if your house is old enough it may be on one of these tours. New Westminster has run an annual tour for the past 35 years. The Vancouver Heritage Foundation for the past 12 Vancouver Heritage Foundation. and if you’re in Victoria you’re really lucky because the Victoria Heritage Foundation has put out a comprehensive set of four books.

9. Google:

Sometimes the obvious is best. Simply google your address and see if anything interesting pops up. Often past sales will give you pictures and information on the owners. 

10. Newspaper databases:

Taking Google one step further, most newspapers are accessible online through your public library. All you need is your library card. For archival newspapers, the British Colonist is online from 1858-1920.

For more information on researching your home’s history see At Home with History: the secrets of Vancouver’s heritage houses 

© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.

Researching John Bull’s House

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On February 23, Jennifer Clay gave an A to Z workshop to home owners wanting to research the history of their homes. Jennifer has written a guest blog based on her presentation.

732 East 8thStreet, North Vancouver
Jennifer Clay in front of her 1926 heritage house

By Jennifer Clay

I live in a 1926 heritage home in North Vancouver, and while I had a vague idea of the previous occupants of our home, the key word is ‘vague’. So when my daughter Kristen, 11, was looking for ideas for her heritage fair project, I suggested she research the history of our home.

Our first stop was the local archives where we were shown the City Directories (1871 to 1996). These directories are like an old fashioned “411.ca”—you can look up your address, find out the name of the occupant, his profession, his employer and the name of his wife (after 1934).

732 East 8th, North VancouverThe City Directories are just one useful resource at the Archives. You can also look for Building Permits, Property Tax Assessments and Fire Insurance Maps to determine the name of the owner, the type and value of structures built on your property and the relevant dates. You may also be able to find photos of your house, its occupants or your neighbourhood. The Vancouver Public Library has over 90,000 historical photographs. BC Archives has  five million, Vancouver Archives about 1.5 million, while the North Vancouver Museum and Archives has a searchable database of 15,000 photos.

If you wish to trace the genealogy of the previous residents of your house, you can search for their names in the 1852, 1901 and 1911 Canadian Census documents, and can also find a wide range of birth, marriage and death certificates for Vital Events which took place in BC and elsewhere in Canada.

By doing all this and more, I was able to trace the family of the first owner (John Bull) back to Britain in the early 1800’s. I found out that he left his home in Ontario in the 1860’s, went to Brooklyn, married the (Catholic) daughter of Irish immigrants, had seven children—including twin girls—and in the 1890’s,  brought his family to the Slocan region of BC to seek his fortune. It’s unclear if he found either gold or copper during his 20 year stay, but we did learn that he lost one of his twin girls, Henrietta Maud, on August 8, 1904 in a drowning accident. When my daughter and I figured this out, we both felt a sense of loss ourselves, as by this time, we felt an emotional tie to this pioneering family who once inhabited the same space that we now inhabit. After their stay in the Kootenays, the family came to North Vancouver, where John Bull started a Coal and Building Supply business, built our house at the age of 75, worked until he was 82 and died at 83.

I’m not done yet. It’s my goal to find a photo of John Bull, be it through his descendants or through the archives of the Slocan Valley. It remains to be seen if I will be successful but it has already been a fun and very rewarding journey.