Researching the History of Your House @Gunning Library

Participants at the Research Workshop, Gunning Library 22 August 2017. Photo courtesy Bronwyn Haynes.

A dozen participants, including people from Gunning, Dalton, Collector, and Crookwell, attended the third workshop on local history research at the Gunning Library on Tuesday. This is part of an ongoing series run by the Gunning Library and the Gunning and District Historical Society.

In this third workshop, we looked into the history of one's house or property. In this region, there is a rich heritage in Colonial and federation architecture. But discovering that history can be a big job.

Participants employed a variety of techniques for discovering the story of their houses, uses the following online resources:

• Six Maps: Use this site to locate your property or to find the relevant plan numbers.
• Historical Land Records Viewer (HLRV): Use this site to search the historical maps of the location of your house. Look for the notations on the old maps and sometimes you can find who owned the land, and when it was sold. Town maps are best if you live in the village.
• Land & Property Information NSW: Here you can search for all sorts of historical and current property information. Current property information usually incurs a fee, but most historical information is free.
• State Archives & Records (Records NSW): On this site you can search the names of owners for wills and other property information.
• Trove: Here you can search for the lot and plan number of your property. Sometimes you can find when the block of land was first offered for sale. Or you can search for the names of previous owners. Narrow down your search by town and year.
• Ancestry.com.au: Electoral rolls and post office and telephone directories are free to access from this service in the Gunning Library. Try searching for previous owners of your property. I usually start a family tree where the house is the most recent person and then search for previous owners and add them as "parents".

Feedback from the workshop was positive, but of course there is never enough time. Some participants confirmed a few stories they had heard, while others were frustrated with the lack of available information. But it can be hard work.

One warning, though: it is addictive! Research in moderation is advised!

During the session, it was suggested that previous workshop activities might be made available for those who are not able to make it to the Library. I will do that in a future post.

GDHS wishes to thank the Gunning Public Library for its support in enabling these free community workshops. We try to run at least two workshops per year. If you have any suggestions for workshops, please let us know via email, Facebook, or Twitter.