Researching the history of a house: Getting Started

Waverley House. B 56810 (Click for a larger zoomable version)

When starting research into the history of your house there is some basic information that you may want to put together before you explore any further.

• Make a list of any known information about the house - name, address, previous owners, builders, etc. This can come from family records, deeds, discussions with people connected to the house.
• Decide how extensive you want your research to be - a brief overview or very detailed search. More extensive research takes more time and may not yield much.
• Determine what specific information you want to find out - age of house, names/history of occupants, photos, plans, title certificates, social histories, etc. This will shape the type of search to conduct.
• Basic versus detailed searching - For a basic search, focus on checking public records and talking to previous owners. For very detailed, examine personal records and archives. Some tips for both levels of researching have been provided in the boxes below. 

It is important to remember that not all houses will be well documented, and for some there will only be limited information publicly available. You may need to rely on contacting the previous owners to obtain any documentation or information on the history of the house. 

Should your house be unnamed, not heritage listed or historically significant, or you have decided to limit your research, try searching to the following:

• South Australian directories (1839-1973) - which may show the names of early occupants and length of residence, neighbours, and suggest the build date. See the box on the right for an example of the entries. 
• Photographs - try searching our Pictorial Collection for photographs of early views of the house, street, general location or previous owners. For more information about searching for photographs, see the 'Archival Sources' tab.
• Published sources - look through general publications on subjects such as architecture, design, or even renovation and restoration, or published local histories for the town or suburb. See the ‘Published Sources’ tab for further recommendations.
• Trove - Search for newspaper articles or notices about the address or previous occupants. Other information you may find include; early subdivision of the land, auction notices, photos, and maybe some early designs and floorplans from South Australian home builders. See the 'Online Resources' tab for more information.
• Your local public library – local history often hold a wealth of historical information about the surrounding suburbs, and any local histories of your district may give information relating to buildings in the area and potentially former residents.

To conduct a more detailed search, in addition to the sources listed above, try the following:

• State Library of SA Catalogue - search our catalogue to discover potential entries related to your house, such as the name of the house e.g. Collingrove; the address; suburb, town or district; the house owners' names for family histories or biographical works; and subject headings such as those listed in the ‘Published Sources’ tab.
• South Australian newspapers - Whilst Trove provides access to many South Australian newspapers published before 1955, newspapers after this date are only available, as microfilm or hard copies, at the State Library. Most of these newspapers are not indexed or searchable, so for any events or articles after 1954, make sure you can find an approximate date to search. 
• Archival records - search archival records for entries related to the name of the house, locality, or name of owners; subject entries, such as Architecture or Building; Private Record Groups for family records; Business Record Groups for records of architects, builders or land agents. See the 'Archival Sources' tab for more information
• Maps - Staff can provide maps showing early settlement to suggest house construction dates. The State Library and Lands Titles Office have old Fullers maps on metropolitan area subdivision. Aerial photographic maps from mid-20th century can show individual houses. 
• SAILIS - SAILIS can provide historical Certificates of Title with details on previous landowners, their occupations, duration of ownership, property boundaries and location. The records may also contain dates of death. For more information on searching the SAILIS database, see our SAILIS library guide. 
• Local Council - Contact your local council for records on land ownership. Local councils may provide access to recent rate assessment books, to discover names of more recent owners. Some councils hold older records of these rate assessment books, but you will find most older records at State Records.
• State Records of SA - Visit State Records to view early council rate assessment books to identify previous landowners and tenants of the property, dates of ownership, and give an indication of a build date for any buildings. 
• Heritage Surveys - If your house is heritage listed, check the local heritage survey. These heritage surveys will often include recommendations for inclusion, specific heritage and architectural details, a history of the house and its occupants, name of the architect and year of construction, and a photo of the house. The level of detail can vary in heritage surveys. 

An example taken from the Sands and McDougall directory (1935).

In this image the street numbers are identified, the name of the occupants, their occupation, intersecting streets, and the orientation of the street.