House History

Last evening, there was a presentation at the Second Life Association of Professional Genealogist (SL-APG) by mayrumblepois.

May, is her Second Life name, and I will refer to her by that name. I can only say that she IS the House Historian.

Her presentation was about her passion in this line of research. She explained that WE, those around the “Fire Pit” (as seen above) have the skills to also be House Historians. The skills are very much the same, the types of records might be the same, but what we are looking for is not about People, but the physical house.

The biggest difference is audience, and WHERE the research is done. “May” reminded us that her research is very local. No travel, no conferences, and it’s not ‘family’ who will receive any questions or reports based on the information gathered.

I have talked to “May” in RL (Real Life) about this, and shared a story with her about a project that I had done in 2007. It was on a House, a historical one at that, and a bit of the journey that I had in a presentation that I had done on that house. I have blogged about “Montmorenci” in the past, have a continuing search for the reason for a “staircase” that is in the Maryland Montmorenci, and the discovery of another Montmorenci Staircase. That search continues, as well as some contact, based on this blog, about family members from “the other” Montmorenci. What contact was within the past month or so. The search continues.

I re-looked at a book that I created, in 2007, and gave to the owners at that time, to see what it would take to really do a House History on that house, based on the presentation last night.

I have notes that track the owners of that house, from the beginning, through 2007, I have notes from the surrounding area and the impact of the families who owned that house to that area (History of the area), so I might have the beginning of a House History for this specific house. In addition, the notion of researching in a “local” area, might not be true, in this case, but it would mean a visit to one or two repositories to gather the “missing” information that might be important for the history of the house, rather then the family history of the families who lived there.

During the presentation, that some of these houses do have “stories” of their own. Some to be told, others, maybe not. While I have been “Looking for ….” Montmorenci, I have one of those stories. In researching that mystery, I saw a number of other stories of events that took place in that house, so I know the information is “out there”.

Once again, May, “the House Historian”, I may be up to your challenge. I will blog about it here.