Researching Houses

If you believe your house was built before 1900, look at our 1860 and 1892 maps and find the name of the homeowner on those dates.

If you have the name of the owner in 1860, you can then check our catalogue to see what we have about that person. We might have a photograph of that person, or their house, or a journal they kept.

You can go to the town office and search tax records. The town hall has a remarkably intact collection of town vital and tax records going back to the late 1700s. Taxpayers records are bound, sometimes with up to five years in one volume. You will need to go to the town office and ask the clerk to bring out the volumes from the safe. Taxpayers are listed alphabetically, so it is easy to quickly find your ancestor, and see what property and livestock they were taxed for, and when they purchased and sold property in town. Working backwards from 1860, you can quickly determine if the 1860 owner owned the property in 1855, 1850, etc. and establish what year they became the house owner. Tax values are usually very steady year to year. If a house was valued at $800 in 1841, 1842 and 1843, but the value suddenly jumps to $1,400 in 1844, you know they built a new house/addition or barn on the site. This is sometimes the only way to establish an exact date for the house construction.

Philip Zea’s 1974 senior thesis is available at the Philip Read Memorial Library in the Special Collection room. Zea documented most (but not all) of the pre-1850 houses in town. There are faded photos of each house with a description of architectural features and ownership history.

Check Choice White Pines and the 1899 Biographies to see if the owner is mentioned.

If you live in Plainfield village, Freeman Road or River Road, read the 1877 “Rambles in Plainfield” which gives detailed descriptions of many houses and their histories.

Deeds prior to 1827 are at the Cheshire County Register of Deeds in Keene, but early deeds are not digitized. Before making the trip to Keene, call the Register at 603-355-3006 to see if they have a deed recorded in the name of the person you’ve established was an owner in the 1765-1827 period. They will make copies of the deed at a cost.

All deeds after 1827 are at the Sullivan County Register of Deeds in Newport. They have all been digitized. https://www.nhdeeds.org/sullivan-county/. Tracing back ownership in the late 20^th century is not too difficult, if you make note of the Book and page number of each deed. The instructions for searching early deeds are terrible, but it can be done.

Jane Stephenson has extensively researched and documented about thirty early houses in town. Contact the PHS through the website to see if your house might be one of them.

If you have researched your own house, the PHS would love to have a copy of your research for our files.