Open House: If These Walls Could Talk

Opening Jan. 14, 2006

Making the Walls Talk:

Researching your house and family histories

We often connect to history through personal stories we hear and recollect. For some, our ties to history come through our family, while for others history may play out in a special place. How do you get started if you want to learn more about your house or family history? For historical records, documents and photographs, a good place to begin is the library and web site of the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS): www.mnhs.org/library/search/index.html. Online catalogs exist for official government documents, extensive photograph collections and church and business records.

Census records: Federal and state censuses can provide detailed information about everyone in a household-everything from ages and occupations to whether they spoke English.
Death records: MHS holds microfilmed death certificates for the state of Minnesota, with an online index on the web site at http://people.mnhs.org/dci/Search.cfm.
Birth records: MHS has birth certificates for the state of Minnesota (1900-1911), with an index available online on the MHS website at http://people.mnhs.org/bci/Search.cfm.
City directories exist back to the late 19th century and track the inhabitants of each dwelling, including names of adult occupants. Directories can lead you to past residents of your home, providing sources for the stories behind your home.
Building permits and building permit cards are on file in city or county records. Start with the city building permit office to learn how to get access to archives from the year your house was built. The permit will include the year the house was constructed and the owner’s name.
Fire insurance maps: These colorful maps, made to document a city's buildings in case of fire, show how the structural 'footprints' of residential and commercial structures changed over time.
Churches and community centers can lead you to longtime residents with stories to tell. Reminisce with older congregants about the neighborhood. Most churches keep a directory of past congregation members and many have published institutional histories.
Photographs: MHS’s Visual Resources Database is a fully searchable online source of nearly 190,000 images of Minnesota people, places and things (http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/). Private family photos can help if you're lucky enough to meet a neighborhood family with old photo albums.