Finding and Interpreting Historical Aerial Photographs to Inform the History of Your House

When attempting to determine an exact construction date for a home, we often turn to maps to aid in this effort. This is, of course, as a form of visual/graphic evidence in conjunction with other documentary evidence, such as deeds, mortgages, etc. Not to be overlooked, however, are historical aerial photographs. In the same way that maps from various years can help to narrow down a range of possible construction dates or to observe development of a neighborhood over time, aerial photographs can provide a literal and visual representation. The key, as with maps, is knowing where to look and how to interpret the images found. While the ideal scenario would be to find at least one dated image prior to the house's construction and be able to compare it to one or several images post-construction, this would not be possible if the house you are researching is older than about 1920. Still, it is likely that aerial photographs exist for your home dating back several decades and thus still extremely interesting and useful to examine for your research.

A circa 1928 aerial photograph of my neighborhood, located via PhilaGeoHistory. My house is highlighted with the purple arrow, about 5 years after its construction.

A Brief History of Aerial Photography

Aerial photography has been linked to the documentation of our built environment ever since its invention in the mid-19th century. According to the Professional Aerial Photographers Association, early aerial images were taken over Paris and Boston by pioineers in hot-air balloons in the 1850's and 60's. Over the next fifty years, photographers continued aerial experiments, strapping cameras to rockets, kites, and even pigeons. By World War I, photos were being taken from another recent invention, airplanes, and were regularly used to document battle maps during the War. Due to further technological innovation, largely by Sherman Fairchild both during and after WWI, aerial photography became adopted and popular for wide government, civilian, and commercial use starting in the 1920's. Nowadays, satellites capture the bulk of aerial imagery, but the moments in times past which we wish to view here would have been taken from airplanes.

Sources for Aerial Photographs

Places to inquire about aerial photographs throughout the past 90 or so years include libraries and historical societies, which can possibly point you to more specific repositories or quasi-governmental agencies or planning authorities. The latter may have commissioned aerial photography in your area for regional planning purposes at several points in time.

Many of these may ultimately be available to access online. Try a Google search for "historical aerial photographs (your state/city)" and you might run across a government agency or library with a stash of old aerials. Locally (to me), the PhilaGeoHistory website run by the Philadelphia Athenaeum includes a section of aerial photographs not just the City of Philadelphia but for the metropolitan area at large. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has a plethora of satellite and aerial imagery available, including an entire section of "Historical Photographs" from 1937 to the present. A link leads to the USGS Earth Explorer image search where you can search by address, then select different checkboxes under "Data Sets" to see if you can find any of those images for your area. Basic resolution images are free to download, whereas high-resolution images are available for a fee.

A number of commercial websites are available as well. Google Earth is likely the most well-known, has some historical imagery (in Google Earth 5 and later), and also has a neat "slider" feature which allows you to slide back and forth between images from different years. Most of the images in Google Earth appear to be fairly recent (1990 or later).

Screenshot of Google Earth historical imagery. The "slider" is shown at the upper left. The earliest available image for my neighborhood on Google Earth was from 1992 (and the roof of my house is washed out in the low-resolution image, rendering it difficult to see. Image quality varies from year-to-year.

Two other commercial sites worth checking out are www.historicaerials.com and www.vintageaerial.com.

The homepage of Historic Aerials displays a map of the United States covered in two shades of green-- the dark green areas have "historic" images available, whereas the remainder only have aerial photos from 1990 or later. Although the website considers anything before 1990 "historic", I've found that many of the shaded areas have available images back to the 1920's and 1930's, with several years in between available. It is quite easy to navigate from year to year at a specific location. The only difficulty is the large watermark which can make it difficult to view detail and only goes away if you purchase the image.

Screenshot at the homepage of Historic Aerials. Although images are generally available throughout the United States, the areas marked in the darker green are more likely to have earlier and older images available.

Screenshot on the image viewer at Historic Aerials. For my neighborhood, images are available to view for 13 different years, spanning from 1948 to 2013.

Vintage Aerial is a very unique website, focusing on rural areas and small townships, and their collection of images are oblique views (rather than a straight-down bird's eye view), which is a neat perspective. One can select any county in the U.S. and the results will tell you if their archive includes images from that county, as well as from which years. It appears that manually browsing images by film roll is the only way to view them at this time, but it is relatively simple to pick a film roll and scroll through the images in the roll. As for finding the right roll, many archive years are accompanied by a "flight map" of the county which includes a guide (which appears to be hand-marked by the original photographer), marking the coverage areas of each film roll. Locate the area on the map you are seeking and hopefully a flight path is marked with a film roll number. Navigate back to the list of film rolls from that year and choose the correct film roll to scroll through the images.

1964 Flight map from Vintage Aerials website in Montgomery County, PA. This map marks each film roll's coverage. The image below was found in Film Roll 88.

Although there do not appear to be any aerials from my particular neighborhood, I did find images from 1964 from the street where I grew up, but not my house's exact location. I was able to locate this image of a huge Victorian house I've always admired, about a mile from the house in which I grew up.

1964 image of a Victorian-era home, found in Film Roll 88 under Montgomery County at Vintage Aerial.

Finding Useful Information in Aerial Images

As you gather images from various years, you will find a wide range of image clarity-- even an image from as recent as the 1990's may not be as clear as an image from 1930. Within the last decade or so, however, satellite imagery has become extremely clear. The most helpful aid which a series of aerial photos could provide would be to help pinpoint the year of construction of a house. If you happen to find an image from 1948 and a house does not exist in it, but it does appear in a 1950 image, then you know that the house was constructed sometime from 1948-1950. This image below is a comparison between a circa 1928 image and a circa 1930 image. Houses which appear on the later image, but not on the earlier image we know were recently constructed as of the date of the second image.

The houses marked by the arrow in the 1930 image were recently completed as of that date, since they did not exist at all in 1928.

As mentioned previously, since aerial photography did not become common until the 1920's, if the house you are researching is older than that, then you will not be able to find images for this purpose, but viewing and examining what you can find will still be useful and interesting.

You may recall from my previous posts that I believe the construction date of my house to be between May 1922 and November 1923 based on numerous types of documentation and analysis. The earliest aerial photograph I was able to locate for my neighborhood was an image labeled circa 1928 (found via PhilaGeoHistory, as part of the collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia). There are no images from prior to my house's construction, but it is still neat to see photographic evidence of the house's existence this early, only a few years after its construction.

Portion of an image, located via PhilaGeoHistory. My house highlighted with purple arrow.

Although the resolution of the image is not extremely clear, you can see the house as one of the few existing on this portion of Central Avenue, something that further confirms evidence found in early atlas maps. The lightly-colored area is actually my entire current property, with the actual house only distinguished by a shadow line at the back of the house. The reason why the whole lot is lighter than other undeveloped lots may be that grass and other growth may have been cleared off of the property and had not yet re-grown, or had regrown in a distinctly visual way.

What you also notice here is the loose outline of a tree line running from northwest to southeast just along my property line, continuing on along multiple properties. This tree line then turns northeast a few blocks away, on either side. To see the reason, see this clip from a 1916 atlas map.

Portion of a 1916 atlas map, via Franklin Maps. My house's location highlighted in purple.

We can also zoom out on the c. 1928 aerial image.

Portion of a c. 1928 aerial image, located via PhilaGeoHistory. To the right, the Spear tract is highlighted with a purple boundary. To the left, we see how a tree line defined much of this boundary.

Although the map is oriented to align with the property, this 1916 map is the latest which depicts the land tract previously owned by Emma Spear. In 1919, she sold this land to Philadelphia jeweler Reginald Ferguson, who subdivided the land into individual home lots. The tree lines in the c. 1928 aerial image correspond to the border of Spear's former land. In the aerial image, we see that this land has only sparsely been developed in the preceding 7 or 8 years, although most of the streets have been laid out (although nearly certainly unpaved) to align with other existing roadways. The 1928 photograph also shows us the already-established residential development to the southwest (labeled "North Glenside" to the left in the 1916 map).

Jumping ahead in time to 1959, some of this tree line remains, and you can see that the neighborhood of Ardsley has now been largely filled with single-family homes throughout. Suburbia has taken hold.

Aerial image of the Ardsley neighborhood, 1959. Located via PhilaGeoHistory.

Zooming in on my house now.

Most of my neighbors' houses have now been built prior to this 1959 image, including the long row of stone-fronted Cape houses running to the southwest. The exception is the ranch house on the north side which was built in the 1970's. You can see the empty lot adjacent to my house which at the time of this image was owned by the owners of my house, the Cantlins. This image was also captured at least a decade after the Cantlins expanded the size of this house-- the purple arrow points to the rear addition constructed in the 1940's.

Have Fun!

These types of images should not be overlooked as part of the historical analysis of your house's history. They are an extremely fascinating way to gain photographic and visual evidence of the evolution of both your house and its context within the greater neighborhood. See if you can locate multiple aerial images over time for your home, and have fun taking a peek at these literal snapshots in time!

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Physical Evidence: Ceramic Tiles Pop Up in the Bathroom, Revealing Old Vinyl Flooring

Slowly, over the last month, the grouted joints between the ceramic tiles in our main bathroom have begun to crack. This has occurred to a minor degree ever since we moved into the house nearly two years ago, but only recently began to become a real issue. The joint cracking was also more significant at the area right against the tub. I had already previously noticed that the perimeter of the ceramic tile floor (against the walls and against the tub) were hard grouted joints, rather than flexible sealant joints, leaving the flooring nowhere to expand and contract without cracking. I had been hoping that the problem was merely because of that sole issue.

Well, it wasn't. Finally, this week, two of the tiles against the tub came fully unbonded from the subfloor beneath. Once I was able to fully lift up these two tiles, the improper installation of this ceramic became evident:

Not good.

What you see here is old flooring, and at a small portion of this area you see wood subflooring, which is now wet on the top side (the underside has been and continues to appear sound from the basement). What you do NOT see is any type of backerboard or underlayment matting. In case you were wondering, that is NOT the way to install new ceramic tile over existing vinyl floor. Sigh. This relatively new ceramic tile is now useless-- it all needs to come out. I have already begun making calls to tile contractors to have them come out for estimates.

Well, Let's at Least Learn More History About This House

We might as well take a closer look then and understand the two layers of previous flooring I see here. I had to do this carefully, however. The reason that I'm not even considering replacing this tile myself, and providing another layer of concern, is that the dark-colored flooring you see has a very good chance of containing asbestos. Aside from removing the ceramic tiles for inspection, I have tried to not mess around with this and to keep it more or less as-is, due to the potential hazard.

First off, what do I know about the history of this bathroom? I know that this is the only bathroom of the two that is original to the 1920's house. The only other bathroom was converted from a kitchen in the 1960's. This original bathroom was part of the second living unit, used by family members of the Cantlins after the house was modified into a duplex. There used to be an exterior window at the tub area. After it was re-instated back to a single-family house by my house's previous owners after 2001, the window was infilled, the bathroom was remodelled, and a fiberglass shower surround was installed. The exact timeframe of the remodel is unknown. Judging by the floor tile installation, I'd guess that this was performed in preparation of placing the home on the market.

Anyway, the dark-colored tiles measure 9" x 9"-- a common dimension for vinyl-asbestos tiles produced prior to the 1970's. I'd guess that what I see here was originally installed in the 1950's or so, perhaps as the Cantlins began to convert the house to a duplex. It may even be older since there does not appear to be much of a pattern to it-- perhaps even the 1940's, when the Cantlins were building an addition onto the back of the house.

As for the lighter, beige-colored flooring, this appears to be from the 1970's or early 1980's. It has a decorative pattern and appears to have largely been removed with the exception of a few remnants at the tub.

Based on the small section and the partial fragments I am seeing, it could either have been a sheet or 12" x 12" tile. This could be more of a linoleum sheet product, but even in the 1970's-80's one cannot rule out vinyl-asbestos without having it lab-tested.

Next Steps

Asbestos-containing materials (ACM's) do not need to be a cause of panic by any means, if they are in good physical shape and are of the less friable varieties. In the case of vinyl-asbestos floor tiles, the percentage of asbestos in the tile's composition could be as little as below 5%. That said, these materials ABSOLUTELY must be treated with care, and consultation by professionals licensed to inspect for asbestos is always a good idea. In my case, you can see that at least one of the 9"x9" has broken once, meaning that at least a small, yet hopefully still safe, level of asbestos fibers may have been released.

My plan of attack is first to have a few professional TILE installers in to provide a consultation and recommendations. I want a company specializing in tile installation, not just a handyman that has the ability to throw down a few tiles. If the tile contractor I decide to hire is able to leave the old flooring in place to encapsulate it under a proper and professional installation, then all the better. If a proper substrate can not be provided over the old vinyl and it must come out, then I probably at least need to have the tiles tested and may need to have a licensed asbestos professional in sooner rather than later. Even if the tile setter is able to keep the old tile in place, at the very least I plan to have the air tested.

Even though this is an unwelcome monetary expense to deal with, it is always interesting to me to uncover old building materials. After all, I still consider these layers to be part of the history of the home.

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An Ink Sketch of the House From the Previous Owner

Hanging on the wall as we toured this house for the first time, in the front room, was this ink sketch of the house as it existed in 2001:

Honestly, this was one of the homey details we noticed as we walked through, placed there by the previous owners. There were a few more-- the enlarged ruler marking the growth of the sellers' children through the years; the old stone stove in the backyard with the heart-shaped rock on it. I certainly would not say that these little items "sold" the house for us-- we had already walked through the front door and realized that this was it, that we had experienced our "You'll know it when you see it" moment that comes for many in the home-buying process. These things certainly spoke to us, however. We replicated the growth chart idea by getting one ourselves after we moved in. Although I haven't done it yet, I plan on somehow finding a similar heart-shaped rock and presenting it to my wife and daughters at some point. 

And finally, the sketch. After all the negotiation was completed, after the inspection was over but before closing day, we still remembered the sketch, and I wanted it. I assumed that the drawing, as was the house, was important to the sellers and didn't dare asking for the original sketch (although did hold out brief hope that they would kindly offer it up to stay with the house). Instead, I asked our realtor if he could pass along a request to allow us to make a copy of it. The sellers were kind enough to oblige and that's exactly what we did.

Although I've not had all that much communication with this former owner, I did ask him through email about the sketch, among other questions after I began hunting down the history of this house. His reply to the query was that the drawing was completed by an artist friend of theirs shortly after they purchased the house in 2001. It was a Christmas present to his wife for their first holiday in their new home. Sure enough, the drawing is signed by the artist and dated 12/4/01. For the life of me I've never been able to make out this artist's name-- George something. The last name starts with a "J" I believe, but the letters after that could be almost anything. I have not re-asked the previous owner as of yet.

Anyway, this is the house frozen in a moment in time 15 years ago. It is not very different today from the way it appeared then, although the untold story is that those owners painted it from white to the current olive green. They also put decorative vinyl shutters on the porch windows, the attic window, and the front-most window on that left side. You don't see those add-on shutters in the sketch of course. The front planting bed is much less crowded nowadays, with less bushes than are depicted here. The downspout on the left-front stone porch pier has been moved to the left side instead of being on the front face. I've wondered about the driveway at the left-side of the house in this image. Here, it looks like it extends nearly all the way to the backyard. Was it really like this? Today, most of this side-yard is grass and a picket fence aligns with the projecting bay window, terminating the current driveway.

Other than those frankly minor details, this is a spitting image of the house we know and love today. It also is pretty much the same as the public record image I found, dated to the 1990s. These two images show the house that Catherine Cantlin finally needed to move out of in 2001, after having lived there for the previous 70 years.

Have you ever had a painting or a sketch of your home completed? If not, consider doing so, both for yourself and for future owners. It's really a special detail that can remain with the home for a long, long time.

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Confirmed: The Neighboring Lot Was Once "Part" of My Current Property

Several months ago, I was fortunate enough to interview the daughter-in-law of John J. and Catherine Cantlin, the long-time owners of my home from 1932-2001 (John Cantlin passed away in 1961 and Catherine continued living here for 40 more years). This woman was able to share several pieces of information I had not known previously, including a birth in the home (her husband, in 1934), and the fact that Mrs. Cantlin also owned the neighboring lot on the north side, which was undeveloped at the time. This was the lead upon which to build more solid information.

My 1920's home in the foreground, with an even earlier home in the background (light blue); sandwiched in between the two is land which was owned by the Cantlins for some time, now occupied by my neighbor's ranch house.

Today, that lot contains a one-story ranch style house where my neighbors, a friendly family of Italian descent, live. These being lots of modest width, their driveway defines the property line, leaving about 6-8 feet between it and my house. The daughter-in-law had relayed that Catherine owned the lot and "sold it off about 20 or 30 years ago. She sold it and then that house was built." The stucco and brick rancher could be 1980's by the looks of it, although I'd have bet somewhere in the 1950-1980 range. My neighbor has been there since 1989 (27 years ago, could fit the timeline given). The only problem was that on the county assessment office's online database, there are listed transactions back to 1973, and none of them involve the Cantlins. So, naturally, where would I look to solve the problem? A chain of title search at the county's Recorder of Deeds office, of course.

I performed the search in person at the office-- although my county does allow off-site access to historical deeds, it currently costs 30 cents per minute so this can add up (I hope new Recorder Jeanne Sorg takes cues from Mr. Schiller in Berks County!). Also, since the assessor's database lists the last three transactions for this property, I could have skipped back to 1973 if I so chose. But, since I was there in person I decided to complete the full chain from my current neighbor back to Ferguson's subdivision (Reginald T. Ferguson was the man who subdivided Emma Spear's roughly 200 acre tract into individual building lots).

The first step was to locate my current neighbor's Grantee deed from 1989. As with most deeds in this area, there is a paragraph which includes reference to the previous deed in the chain. Repeating this process took me backwards successively in time, from deed to deed, and after not too long I located the 1919 deed with Ferguson's conveyance of the lot to a Albert F. Troast.

However, it's later in the chain's chronology where I'm hoping to locate the Cantlins, and earlier within that search I found it. On May 18, 1946, John J. Cantlin and Catherine Cantlin purchased the lot from Troast, who apparently held it for 26 years, for the sum of $500. The property actually consisted of three skinny lots, numbered #2220, #2221, and #2223 on Ferguson's plan, none of which were individually large enough to build on-- I have yet to learn why most of the land was apportioned in such a way by Ferguson's surveyor.

Clip from 1946 deed conveying the neighboring lot from Albert Troast to John and Catherine Cantlin

Around this time in the 1940s, the remainder of the block was finally starting to fill in with new stone-front Cape Cod homes. Although it is mere speculation, the Cantlins may have recognized burgeoning development on their block and decided to snag the adjacent land while they had the chance, holding open the possibility of expanding to the north, or to hold onto the lot for use by one of their children or other family. As I've discovered previously, the Cantlins were in the process of enclosing their rear porch to expand the house, taking out the permit only a month prior to this! So clearly, they had expansion on their minds in some respect. If I get the chance to ask the Cantlins' daughter-in-law, I'll see if she can provide any further insight.

In any case, John Cantlin passed on in 1961, and the neighboring lot remained undeveloped by the Cantlins. Catherine held onto it until 1972-- 44 years ago. I'll certainly forgive the daughter-in-law for the inaccuracy in timing, for she provided me the clue in the first place! I wonder how Catherine used the open lot-- did she garden there? Let her teenage kids frolic there? Another question to ask. When she did unload the land on May 10, 1972, she sold it to a company called Mont-Bux, Inc. for $7,000. Mont-Bux flipped it a year later to a Sidney and Carol Mann for $29,275. It seems clear that Mont-Bux Inc. was a local residential development company; a brief search turns up a few appellate court cases from the 1970's, all involving residential developments planned by the company. This evidence that Mont-Bux was a residential developer, grouped with the sharp increase in value in 1973 plus my interviewee's recollection that a house was built shortly after Mrs. Cantlin's sale of the land, strongly suggest that the rancher house was built between May 1972 and May 1973.

Clip from 1972 deed conveying the lot from Catherine Cantlin to Mont-Bux, Inc.

The second page of the 1972 mentions John's passing in 1961, in order to clear up any potential question in the title chain. Also note in the last line of this page that the lot is subject to the same restrictions spelled out in all Ferguson's lots, as discussed here.

Another clue turns into a fun research task and a question answered, adding another component to the history of my house! And further evidence that you must reach out to actual people who may have first-hand knowledge about your house's history, even if they don't realize it.

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Re-Examining the Previous Layouts of the House

As far as I have been able to discern thus far, the floor plan layout of my house has gone through at least four significantly different iterations. I took my first shot at one of these previous layouts several months ago, after discovering evidence of a now-abandoned kitchen at the back of the house. In hindsight, those conjectures were incorrect after further investigation. Now, given the benefit of a lengthy conversation recently with long-time owner Catherine Cantlin's daughter-in-law, I take pause to examine what I know in terms of the layout history. The evidence gathered has been documentary, anecdotal, and physical. The first floor has always been the only real occupied space, with the unfinished basement below and the attic above. What follows is my present understanding of how the layout has changed throughout ithe house's roughly 93-year history.

Original Layout (c. 1923 to 1940s)

During its first 15-20 years, this house was one of the only ones in existence on the block, and it was a very modest home at roughly 750 square feet. Although I do not believe it was a mail-order kit house, the design may have been found in a pattern book I have yet to locate. This kit model sold by Montgomery Ward in 1930 is very close to what I believe to be the original layout of the house. Here is my own sketch:

Throughout its existence, the left half of the plan has generally contained living spaces, while the right half has contained bedrooms. Originally, one entered from the front porch into a modest-sized living room. This room has always held a view through a large cased opening into what is now the kitchen but was originally the dining room. Beyond the dining room was an enclosed kitchen at the rear of the house, off of which was an exit to the backyard. These functions in these locations were confirmed by the Cantlin daughter-in-law. Just to the left of the back steps was an exit staircase from the basement (a set of steps which still exists today but is entombed beneath my living room). I consider it a pretty safe assumption that the stacked staircases to the basement and attic remain today in their original locations. On the right side of the house, the main bedroom was off of the living room, with a second bedroom at the back, and the house's only bathroom was sandwiched in between the two.

New Rear Addition; Duplex Phase 1 (1940s to early 1960s)

Perhaps ironically, I am a bit less sure about this iteration of the layout than I am of the original layout. The lack of clarity rests primarily in whether or not the rear addition was completed in one or two phases, and when. What I do know, positively, is that a rear porch, which constitutes the upper-left corner of the floor plan, was enclosed in 1946 to create more interior space (due to receipt of a copy of that 1946 building permit). The construction and design of the addition lead me to believe that the entire addition inclusive of the un-enclosed porch was built at one time, prior to 1946, with that porch enclosure occurring later. To date I have not been able to locate backup documentation. Here is what the plan may have looked like both before and after the porch was enclosed:

I believe that the gabled, primary portion of the addition may have included a third bedroom to the left and a second kitchen to the right. Off of the new bedroom would have been the porch-- and once enclosed, it expanded the size of the bedroom. During this time period, John and Catherine Cantlin's children were reaching adulthood and the parents portioned off half of their newly expanded house, creating a duplex for their family members. The second unit was not fully closed off from the main unit at this point, as it was family living there. According to their daughter-in-law, all three of the adult children lived in the apartment at some point. The left-side (main) unit contained the connected living/dining room, the original kitchen, and the near rear bedroom. The right-side apartment contained entry from the rear into a new door at the new kitchen. Then, progressing towards the front past the attic steps was the apartment living room, which could also double as a bedroom if required. The original bathroom may have been shared across both units during this time period-- the door opening accessing the hallway from the dining room may or may not have existed. Lastly, the original primary bedroom was now the main bedroom for the apartment.

Kitchen Relocated; Duplex Phase 2 (1960s to 2001)

Also according to the Cantlins' daughter-in-law, Catherine made some further changes after husband John's death in 1961. Most significantly, the house's original kitchen was converted into a new second bathroom. Permit records confirm this change and provide a date of November 1963. If there was indeed access to the original bathroom from the dining room at this time, it was closed off at this time. Kitchen cabinetry and plumbing was installed along the left-side wall of the dining room, turning it into an eat-in-kitchen.

The remainder of the duplex is as described in the previous iteration. The sketch above shows the Cantlins' newer rear bedroom expanded into the area of the porch enclosure.

Re-Birth as a Single-Family House (2001 to Present)

After Catherine Cantlin sold and vacated the house towards her later years, a young couple took ownership and set to work re-establishing functionality of the house as a single-family home.

The function of living room was relocated to the larger back room of the house, into what was previously Ms. Cantlin's bedroom. The second rear door off of the apartment kitchen was filled in. When exactly this kitchen was converted into a bedroom is unclear at this time, but the daughter-in-law reports that the house was still presented as a duplex when she helped sell the house in 2001, so it likely was not abandoned until that time. Both bathrooms were updated, and I believe it was during this ownership that the window at the original bathroom was filled in. An exterior deck was built at the back of the house, covering over both sets of concrete steps.


What exists now is a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom single-family home of approximately 1,100 square feet. For now, this layout works pretty well for us. We'd like it to be perhaps a bit larger, and I have some designs in my head, but we'll get to those in due time. This house is over 90 years old and has seen significantly more change than I realized when I set out on my research. Yet, the journey and the in-progress results are fascinating, as the house has shifted and morphed along with all of its occupants.

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Finding Physical Evidence: Second Back Door

My modest little bungalow was built in at least two stages. The first, the main house as seen today from the street, was built in the 1920's, likely around 1922-1923. As I've featured in a few previous blog posts, the rear portion of the house, which currently contains our living room and the third bedroom, was built as an addition with at least part of it built in 1946. With a back door exiting the house onto the back wood deck, I've always assumed that this was the entrance to the house's second living unit back when it was a duplex-- a neighbor had confirmed that tenants entered the house from a rear door. The wood deck was built within the last 15 years by my house's previous owners. Since the house is raised a few feet from grade, it was never difficult for me to peek underneath the deck to see the small set of concrete steps leading to the back door, as well as a concrete patio at the bottom.

However, after speaking with a woman who lived in my house from 1958-1961, something seemed off about her description of the house's previous duplex layout. Having seen the current photos of the house which I had sent her, she had relayed to me that the addition of the deck onto the back of the house had made it look quite different from what she knew. Then, in running through the sequence of rooms which were part of the second unit, she described entrances into the house at both Catherine Cantlin's bedroom (my current living room) as well as into the kitchen of the second living unit. Glossing over this fact at first in my mind, it did not quite register-- during the conversation I simply listened as she ran through the layout, assuming that tenants or family member occupants had shared the front entrance door with Catherine.

But looking back at this conversation the next day, and revisiting the layout she described, the access to the second unit wasn't making sense in that arrangement. Then for some reason, it clicked in my mind and realized that what she was describing in that brief instant was a second back door to the house, one which gave direct access to the unit. Looking at a straight-on view of the rear addition, you can see the main A-framed gable roof portion of the old addition to the left, taking up about 2/3 of the back elevation. To the right is a former porch which was enclosed, with the current back door all the way to the right.

Look at the main structure on the left, and at the blank portion to the left of the windows-- this blank space throws off the symmetry of the gable elevation. In my wandering daydreams of future additions, I have often thought of making this whole rear addition one big "great room", and perhaps relocating the rear entrance to the location of that blank space. Now, it makes perfect sense why I might have thought to do so-- because it had already been that way!

Now, let's looking even more closely. The asbestos shingle siding at this area is not quite straight and true, as you can see some variation as if this portion of the wall is "bubbling" out a tiny bit. There are a few areas where courses of siding are not quite exactly aligned (look below the left edge of the window trim, and also right near the deck railing)-- evidence that a former opening had been covered over and new siding patched in.

Now, even closer. At the junction between the siding and the wood deck, you can see evidence of a wood door threshold I had never noticed before, just peeking out. It may be a bit difficult to tell in the photo, but it is about 3 feet long, the right size for a door, and is clearly different wood than that of the exterior deck:

And finally, let's take another peek underneath the deck at this area. I had done so previously, but only with a quick glance and never with a flashlight, as this corner of the house is blocked by a plastic toy/bike shed which we use and has been there since we moved in. Now, we look underneath the deck here and what do we see?

A second set of concrete steps, with presumably jack-hammered pieces of the old concrete patio piled on it! It is now clear that this was the back door referenced by my neighbor (he never had a reason to get more specific with me). This was the direct entrance into the second living unit in the house, entering directly into what was the unit's kitchen. In their remodel of the house and in the process of reclaiming it as a single-family house (which I still need to get an account of), the former owners of 2001-2014 appear to be the ones who have covered over this entrance, and eventually placed a new closet here on the interior side, turning it into the house's third bedroom.

This was quite an exciting discovery, fueled by my conversation with someone who lived in my house over 55 years ago!

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Information From a Former Occupant of the House

Just before the New Year, I penned an article here called "The Importance of Contacting Your House's 'Descendants'" which described why it is so important for you to attempt to contact living persons who are connected to your house's history. This is THE most likely way to find the most elusive types of information-- about layout (or other physical) changes, the personalities/lives of former owners and occupants, and perhaps even photographs. The article also described ways in which you can go about finding these living sources and how to respectfully approach them. Finally, I presented an intro to what has led to some of my most important discoveries to date:

"The most successful result, however, was with one of the daughters-in-law (edit: of my house's longtime owners John & Catherine Cantlin), who by chance has lived within my same neighborhood for decades. I found contact information including the telephone number and address in a phone directory, and started off by writing a simple letter and including some current photographs of the interior and exterior of the house. I did not receive a response, so after a couple of months I made a simple phone call. On the receiving end was the daughter-in-law, who was delightful to talk to, who HAD received my letter (but had not responded only because she assumed she had no useful information for me), and who proceeded to have a very nice conversation with me about what I've found to date and about what she recalled."

I sent my initial letter to the daughter-in-law (who I believe is in her 70's) towards the end of the summer of 2015 (around when I started Home Scribe History) and decided to make the cold call in early November. We spoke for roughly 20 minutes and I kept very detailed notes. What follows here is a brief summary of what I found out from her in the first of what is hopefully multiple conversations with her:

• The daughter-in-law herself, who was married to John and Catherine's (now deceased) youngest son, lived in the "apartment" side of the house from 1958-1961. This confirms that she has some serious memories and knowledge about the house.
• She confirmed that the house, for a significant part of its history (as early as the 1950's through to at least 2001), was a duplex and not merely a single-family home as it was originally and is today. This is something I discovered previously and detailed in my post from late September "This Single-Family Was Once a Duplex" and was triggered by the discovery of a piece of duct tape in the basement labeling piping for the "Old Kitchen". The layouts I presented in that post were far from correct, largely due to the fact that the layout had changed much more than I realized. She did, however, confirm that what is presently my 3rd bedroom was formerly the apartment kitchen.
• She confirmed the youngest Cantlin son's (her husband's) birth year as 1933. Additionally, she informed me that he was born in the home.
• She and her husband had helped sell the house in 2001 after Catherine moved out to a nursing home at the age of 95. At that time, no significant changes were made in preparation for selling the house beyond some new carpets and minor cosmetic improvements. She confirmed some termite remediation which was found during my home inspection.
• I was informed that after John Cantlin's death in 1961, Catherine Cantlin undertook additional layout changes on the half of the house where she lived. Most significantly, I learned that what is now the second bathroom (between the current kitchen and the current living room) was previously the original kitchen of the house. After John's death, this became a bathroom, and the former dining room became what is today Kitchen/Dining.
• Her understanding is the same as mine that the house already existed when the Cantlins bought it in 1932. She relayed an anecdote that was told to her that the Cantlins had lived in Philadelphia previously (which I knew from census research) and had moved out to Glenside, at one point renting a house on Roberts Avenue less than a mile away from my house. Catherine had been trying to decide between the Roberts Avenue house and this one, ultimately choosing this one. She believes they rented the house before buying it, as I suspected based on their purchasing deed.
• The neighboring lot used to be owned by Catherine Cantlin as part of her lot. This lot now contains my neighbor's house. According to the daughter-in-law, Catherine sold the lot off 30 or so years ago. Records seem to indicate that it may have been sold in 1973, 43 years ago.
• She confirmed that the old stone stove in the backyard has been there since at least when she lived here, so she pegged it as at least as early as 1956-57. She was not sure who physically built it, and did not believe her father-in-law did. She relayed that it was heavily used, and that the Cantlins liked to entertain, especially on July 4th.

This single conversation gave me alot to work with-- alot of new leads to research further. It gave me alot of detail that I likely would never have learned without contacting former occupants of the house. I will say that I probably caused this woman to be confused more than a few times, referring to a living room that she never knew as a living room, and I kept thinking she was referring to rooms in the back of the house when she meant the front. This confusion was simply because the house has seen a significant number of changes, so both of us had come from it based on our own understanding of the house. I did ask her if she could recall any photographs which might show the house in some of these earlier decades. She said that she would check, and would also check with her sister-in-law (the other living Cantlin daughter-in-law) who might be more likely to have such things.

I followed this phone call up with another letter shortly thereafter, enclosing a few sketched out floor plans asking some additional questions and to ensure that I understood our conversation correctly. I will post more about any follow up information as it arises, but I hope this demonstrates the potential value to your house history research!

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The Importance of Contacting Your House's "Descendants"

In some of my other posts here, I have championed the importance of learning the personal histories of those who have lived in your home in the past. Doing so will bring life to the facts which you are compiling about your house's history. This exploration, of course, extends beyond the legal owners of your property-- to their children and their parents who may have also lived in the house. The "FAN Club" Principle, as explained by well-known genealogist and historical researcher Elizabeth Shown Mills, describes how the seeking out of documents for your subject person's Friends, Associates, and Neighbors can lead you past sticky "brick wall" type problems to take it a step further.

All of this is to say that you must go beyond those property owners whom you find in your title chaining. In most cases, especially if your house has some age to it, those past owners are no longer with us. However, those past owners have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and in-laws who just may have spent significant time in your home or even lived there. If you can locate these living "descendants" of your house's ownership history, you just may find yourself on the track to gaining first-hand knowledge about the way your house was several decades ago. I can almost guarantee that you will NOT find much of this information in any other way. This is also the single most likely way in which you might find older photographs of your house.

Note: This is a photo of my grandmother Virginia Gillooly when she was a toddler in the early 1930's, held by her great-aunt Emilie Louden, who raised her. In the background you can see not only their home at the time, but the neighboring house in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. The present-day owners of these homes might be interested in them! 

Locating Living "House Descendants"

Excusing the continuation of the pun, you should "fan" out starting with one of your house's previous owners. You might find it easy enough to build a small family tree or pedigree chart for them on Ancestry.com or on another genealogical website or software. Instead of going backwards in time, you will be looking to move forwards in time towards present-day.

The most useful documents for heading in this direction might just be census records and obituaries. Census records (currently available up to 1940) will help you build the makeup of the household in question. For my home's longtime owners, John and Catherine Cantlin, I know from both the 1930 and 1940 census schedules that they had three children: Jean (aka Claire, born c. 1927), John Jr. (born c. 1929), and Robert (born c. 1934), all of whom lived in this home during their childhood.

1930 Census schedule enumerating John and Katherine (Catherine) Cantlin in Philadelphia, with daughter Clarie (Claire) and son John.

1940 Census schedule enumerating John and Catherine Cantlin on Central Avenue in Ardsley, with daughter Jean C (Claire), son John, and youngest son Robert.

Using some simple logic and pretending I know nothing else, head of household John Cantlin would be 114 years old if living today, while Catherine would be 108-- not very likely that they would still be with us, and in fact they are not. Extending to the children, they would potentially range from ages 81 to 88 if living today, which is much more realistic. All three children could be sought out to see if they might still be with us. Search more recent public records and Google to find out. As crazy (and perhaps unsettling to some) as it may seem, nearly every person living today in this internet-age has unwittingly or not created some form of online footprint. You may be able to find out relatively easily if they are living or deceased. I will spare you further suspense in this example and inform you that all three of the Cantlin children have passed away previously.

Although you may not find living descendants in this first portion of the search, remember that you must expand out further beyond the immediate family. Your first searches may lead you to recent obituaries online, or you may need to seek older obituaries out in other repositories. See my previous article on obituaries for the types of information you will find within them. The most important portion of the obituary for locating living persons is where the decedent's survivors are listed. In this case, I located an obituary for John Cantlin's grandson who passed away within the past decade, and in it were listed two living daughters-in-law as well as four now-adult living grandchildren of John and Catherine Cantlin. (Note: I wish not to reproduce this obituary here, bearing in mind privacy concerns for the living persons listed in it). After locating the obituary, I now had as many as six living persons I could consider contacting to see if they were willing to share any memories of not only the house, but of John and Catherine themselves.

Making Contact

Once you've got some names, you might again turn to Google to seek out their current mailing address and/or telephone number. You might also consult current telephone directories. Further, in this digital age, Facebook might yield a current profile for living descendants. In my case with the Cantlins and the six living family members, I initially was able to find Facebook profiles for several of the grandchildren still living in the area, and did reach out to one of them several months ago, with no response as of yet. I may delicately try again to reach out, or may try to contact one of the other grandchildren.

The most successful result, however, was with one of the daughters-in-law, who by chance has lived within my same neighborhood for decades. I found contact information including the telephone number and address in a phone directory, and started off by writing a simple letter and including some current photographs of the interior and exterior of the house. I did not receive a response, so after a couple of months I made a simple phone call. On the receiving end was the daughter-in-law, who was delightful to talk to, who HAD received my letter (but had not responded only because she assumed she had no useful information for me), and who proceeded to have a very nice conversation with me about what I've found to date and about what she recalled.

I'll remind you to approach living persons respectfully, of course. After all, they are not at all expecting it. I find that most people are receptive to reconnecting with the past and to sharing with you, but it's worth reminding that some may not. The ideal scenario, of course, is that the descendants you contact are as excited to share what they know as you are to hear it. In these cases you will likely need to do little to spur the floodgates to open. If they are less enthusiastic or responsive, I find it worth giving folks some space if they are not immediately forthcoming with a ton of information. Make it clear that you are willing to bear the cost of reproducing any documents or photographs they are willing to share. Whether you initially make contact via telephone, snail mail, or email, send them a gentle reminder letter/email, perhaps with a single new question. Asking 20 different questions all at once may be too overwhelming. If you write, include a self-address stamped envelope for them to write you back (this may have been helpful for me to include on my first letter)-- make it as simple as possible for those you are corresponding with to write you back. Be patient, and you will likely be rewarded. You MAY even be rewarded with some old photographs of your home!

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Is There a Ghost in the House?!? What Death Certificates Could Reveal

If you're reading this, my dear wife, don't worry-- I didn't see any sort of odd spectre in the basement or anything.

People die in houses all the time. Over the course of time for a 90-year-old house such as ours, it stands to reason that there is a chance that someone passed away in the house. If your house is a 18th or 19th century house, then the likelihood is even greater, and this thought might have even crossed your mind. But, like I said, people die in residential houses every day. I don't think it's such a big deal. Maybe that's easy for me to say since we haven't experienced any odd occurrences or weird, unexplained noises or sights, aside from our crazy cats galloping back and forth from the front foyer to the rear living room at all hours of the night. Still, I know for a fact that someone died in our house, and I can essentially "prove" it with historical records-- chiefly, a death certificate.

Death Certificates for House History Research

Among the basic tools of genealogical research are vital records: Birth, Marriage, and Death records. As they provide elaboration on three of the major events of most people's lives, they are highly treasured. Speaking specifically of death certificates, they are primary sources of information (in regards to the death event at least), since they were created at or very close to the time of occurence, with information provided by someone who either witnessed or had very close knowledge of it. The informant on an official death certificate is often a close family member, and a medical professional often provides additional information as to the cause of death.

As discussed in my article on obituaries for house research, one should seek out the personal history of the home's occupants to gain a richer sense of the house's overall history. This endeavor can be supported by death certificate research, if obtaining the death record is accessible within reason. Official death records (meaning by a government entity) were very spotty, if they were kept at all, prior to 1900. Around the early years after the turn of the century, states began enacting legislation requiring the creation of death certificates upon each death in the state. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did so in 1906.

Nowadays, finding a death certificate for your research is not always easy, but is generally much easier than obtaining a birth certificate, due to privacy restrictions in place in most states. Each state has its own laws governing when vital records can become public information. Speaking further of Pennsylvania, death records are public 50 years after the death itself, whereas birth records only become public 105 years after the birth. Further, the availability of viewing a death record may involve a formal request to a state vital records office, which would usually involve a fee. Ordering death certificates for each person associated with your house could certainly prove costly, but you can narrow down your inquests to those who either likely still owned the house upon their passing, or were residents there when passing. Unless the house was conveyed within the same family through inheritance or other means, or unless the house was sold during a settlement of one's estate, most of your home's past owners probably sold the house sometime during their lifetime and thus can be eliminated from your death certificate orders, if you wish, if a fee is involved. See here and here for more information on death records and where you can find vital records in your state.

Fortunately, for my state, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has formed a partnership with Ancestry.com to provide free access for PA residents to images of all PA death certificates on record for the years 1906 to 1963 (access is also available to paying Ancestry subscribers anywhere; also, this is not just limited to death certificates, but also includes a number of other document collections of the PA State Archives). This has become an invaluable resource for me in both my genealogical research as well as my house history research.

So Who Died Here?

As described in my article on obituaries, longtime owner and resident of the house Catherine Cantlin did not pass away in the home, but rather in a nearby nursing home, in 2002. Her husband, John Cantlin, passed away in 1961. His death certificate indicates that this occurred at Abington Memorial Hospital a few miles away. So it was not one of these longtime owners who died here.

Remember in the obituary post when I discovered that funeral services for John Cantlin's Irish-born mother, Sarah Cantlin, were held in my house? Well, the story doesn't quite end there. Here is her death certificate:

The place of death is listed as 402 Central Ave, Abington-- my house (its former address). She passed away here on the afternoon of July 23, 1944 at the age of 73. The cause of death reported by Dr. Robert Grace, if I am reading and interpretting the handwriting correctly, was "Malignancy- G.I. Tract" otherwise known as gastrointestinal cancer. She appears to have been attended to by the doctor for this affliction for at least 2-1/2 months. She is buried at a cemetery named "Holy Cross" (most likely the Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Delaware County PA just outside West Philadelphia, where there are several Cantlins listed on Find A Grave, although no virtual memorial created for Sarah yet). John Cantlin's signature is included on the death certificate, indicating that he was the source for his mother's biographical information provided.

Sarah Cantlin's husband, James, passed away in 1924. Yet, she continued living on N. 22nd St in Philadelphia with her youngest son Daniel in the shadows of Shibe Park, home of the Philadelphia A's major league baseball team. Although her neighbors two blocks east, on 20th St, famously had great views of stadium play and a series of spats with team ownership, Sarah's quality of life in her late 60's was likely affected by the addition of light stanchions at the stadium in 1939 and the introduction of night games. This, perhaps, contributed to her desire, or need, to move in with her son John in Glenside in the early 1940's.

Left to right:1. Prominent entrance to Shibe Park at 21st & Lehigh (image via Lib. of Congress) 2. Rooftop "bleachers" at Sarah Cantlin's luckier neighbors on 20th St across from the stadium (image via Lib. of Congress) 3. Mrs. Cantlin's former home at 2734 N. 22nd St in major disrepair, 2009 (image via Google Street View) 4. The vacant lot in 2012 after the row house was demolished in 2010 (image via Google Street View)

So, is the spirit of old Sarah Cantlin still hanging around our house? I think not-- this home was only her place of residence for a relatively short time, and as I've said, we haven't seen anything strange. Unfortunately, her own long-time home in North Philly became dilapidated as the neighborhood around the former Shibe Park fell into disrepair in recent decades. So dilapidated, in fact, that it was demolished in 2010.

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How Obituaries (Both Old and Recent) Can Be a Boon to Your House History

As I have posited previously, the people who have owned, occupied, or even rented your house as tenants in the past are collectively what comprise the soul of your house's historical story. Aside from tracking down and investigating the physical history of your house as an object, it is the historical lives of the home's people who will really enrich your research beyond a mere statement of facts. Thus, we will seek out information about their lives as best we can. Once you have completed your house's (land's) chain of title, you are left with a list of previous owners to research further. There are many genealogical sources upon which you can draw to reconstruct the lives of these owners and other occupants, and one important one is published obituaries or death notices of previous occupants. While obituaries are a common source for genealogy research, there is also a very specific way these articles can aid a house history research by leading you to living people who can possibly act as further sources of information.

What Will You Find?

The long and the short of it is that you just don't know what exact information you might find until you locate the obituary. You may find alot or you may find not much at all described in the obit-- but that's the reason to look! There is one important clarification of terminology here. Although often grouped collectively under the term "obituary", death notices and obituaries are two different types of articles. A death notice is a usually somewhat brief formal announcement of a person's death, stating the primary facts as provided by the deceased's family. They often state such things as when the person died, potentially where he/she passed away (such as at his home), when and where he was born and/or raised, who his survivors are, perhaps a brief statement of his previous occupation(s), funeral specifics, and often interment location. A true obituary, on the other hand, is a more lengthy article written as a profile piece, often by a newspaper writer using information provided by the family. A true obituary is not paid for, as a death notice is, and is published at the discretion of the publishing entity (i.e. newspaper). For fairly obvious reasons, they can be a wealth of information, providing you a detailed account of the subject person's life in narrative form. Most past persons which you are researching will be documented in death notices; not in a true obituary which are in much, much fewer number. Please note that for the duration of this article, I will use the term "obituary" to also mean a death notice, as is commonly done.

Looking to the Past - Information on Former Occupants

For your house history research, you should now have a list of previous owners obtained in your title searches (if not, read here). I have gathered a list of 7 married couples who held ownership of my home or it's land since this home lot was created in a land subdivision (earlier owners of the larger land tract, of course, should ideally also be researched). Obituaris should be sought for all 14 persons. The 2002 death notice of Catherine Cantlin (the longtime matriarch of the home from c. 1932 to 2001) tells me that she was born in the city of Philadelphia, lived her life primarily as a homemaker, and passed away at a nursing home not far from the home she loved. I've also learned here that her maiden name was Stearn, that she is buried at the large Catholic cemetery a few miles away, and that her husband John and two of their children preceded her in passing.

Death notice of Catherine Cantlin, published 2002 in The Times-Chronicle.

Don't forget to search for obituaries for other relatives who may have also occupied the home, such as the owner's children. From census records, I've learned that John and Catherine had three children: Jean (aka Claire, born c. 1927), John Jr. (born c. 1929), and Robert (born c. 1934), all of whom lived in the home during their childhood. To date, I have located the death notices for one of these three children. While you will not always find staggeringly interesting or noteworthy information, these bits of information will help you reconstruct the lives of these people along with other sources. They lived in your house after all!

Before we leave the "Ghost of Cantlins Past", a note that extended family should not be dismissed. Again, through census records, it was not difficult to determine the parents of John Cantlin as James and Sarah Cantlin, Irish immigrants. Locating the death notice of Sarah Cantlin from 1944 yielded that a remembrance service for her was conducted at my house! The discovery of events such as this which took place at the house can really bring to life to your house's story.

Death notice of Sarah Cantlin, published July 26, 1944 in The Philadelphia Inquirer. This informs me that a portion of her funeral services were conducted in my house.

Looking in the Present - Finding Living House History Sources

Allow me to stress that the greatest value you might get from a thorough obituary search is by locating living descendants of those associated with your house. Obituaries, in combination with current public records, phone books, and maybe even Facebook, can lead you to people who are alive and who just might be able to tell you something of interest about your house.

Consider again the Cantlin family. The long-time owners of my house, John and Catherine, passed away in 1961 and 2002, respectively. Their three children have all also passed away, the last of which in 2008. Through searching for other obituaries within this family, I came upon one for another family member who passed away in 2007. It turns out that this obit was in reference to John Jr's son (John Sr's grandson). Examining this obituary reveals names of several living descendants of John and Catherine, including two daughters-in-law and four now-adult grandchildren. These are all potentially persons whom I can respectfully contact and ask if they are willing to share any memories, either of the house itself or of these folks John and Catherine, whom I have thus far only come to know on paper. This single obituary is the key to a potential bonanza for the house history.

Sources for Obituaries and Death Notices

There are many potential sources for finding obituaries. I preface this by saying that aside from doing a "blind" name search somewhere, it is generally most helpful to track down the date of death of the person first. This can admittedly take some time and further research, especially for those who passed prior to the information age resulted in an online footprint of virtually everybody. This is where using Ancestry or another online or offline genealogy family tree will come in handy, as many of these put clues and source documents right in front of you. I will get into this topic more another time.

The first and most logical place to start searching for obituaries is in newspaper archives. One can usually pretty easily search many newspapers online for obituaries which are only a few years old. A daily-increasing amount of historical newspapers are being digitized and placed on websites such as Genealogy Bank, Google Newspaper Archives, and Newspapers.com.  However, still, most often you will need to head to a local library to view past issues of newspapers on microfilm (I personally, even as a Millennial, am incredibly thankful that my research has forced me to use such great resources as the local library).

Other sources might include less-obvious places such as social clubs or fraternal organizations. However, unless you knew the person, you likely do not know of their involvement in such an organization until you find, ahem, their obituary. Still, even if you learn of it after the fact, sometimes you can find old meeting minutes or newsletters of such organizations which might include a brief biographical sketch around the time of death of a member, yielding more information than a standard death notice.

Funeral homes are another source, as they often even assist with the obituary publishing process. Nowadays, many funeral homes include current and recent obituaries on their website. For older obituaries, you might consider contacting local funeral homes in the area where the person lived to see if they handled that person's funeral and if they have an obituary on file.

Lastly (and this list is not meant to be exhaustive), there is www.findagrave.com. This is an online search catalog of virtual "memorials" which correspond to real gravesites in real cemeteries. The information is entirely comprised of user-submitted contributions, but it has a tremendous following and, to date, over 138 million grave records, growing daily. Some of these virtual memorials include the text of the deceased person's published obituary, with the source listed. The percentage which include obituary information is small, and one must fact check a source like this, but I have come across it enough to cause me to check the site when looking for an obituary.

Good luck finding all those obituaries!

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