Braindump: What Items Are on My Research To-Do List?

So, research on the bungalow has slowed a bit lately. It's not for a lack of leads or places to search for more information, however. With a full-time job and a limit to what can be found online, I've not recently had the chance to get back to the Montgomery County Courthouse to make more substantial progress. With that said, there are several items which I have discovered but not yet shared here and will do so in the near future.

Still, I figure this time to be appropriate to do a sort of "brain dump" exercise to lay out on virtual paper some of the main tasks I have ahead of me. If I take a holistic view of my research so far, I would say that I have a relatively thorough understanding of both the transactions involving the house and of its major physical alterations over time. On the other hand, I have not definitively pin-pointed the construction date or builder, and there is much more to learn of the land's history before the house was built. Putting all of my identified to-do items in one spot allows me to take general stock of what items will help fill certain gaps, and it will allow me to more easily identify tasks which might be started with writing a letter or making a phone call (i.e. things I can do now without visiting a records repository).

Photo: Pixabay (CC)

So, here's the brain dump, grouped into loose categories:

Contacting Living Individuals / Primary Source Interviews

• Follow up with John/Catherine Cantlin's daughter-in-law regarding my last letter sent in November
• Get in touch with the other surviving daughter-in-law (possibly through the first one) to see if an interview can be arranged
• Contact 2001-2014 owner to share my findings thus far; discuss the renovation to a single-family he performed and ask if he is able to share any documentation or photographs.
• Locate Gutekunst descendant identified in obituary research; establish preliminary contact and try to arrange interview
• Contact owners of Spear house (possibly former home of Emma Spear) and try to arrange an interview
• Ask immediate neighbors further questions about the house and Cantlins

Courthouse Records

• Perform chain of title on neighbor's property, which was reportedly once a part of mine before being sold off
• Any record of writ of fieri facias (believed to be foreclosure on the Coogans) still in tact at County Archives? First inquiry came up needing more info to locate correct records group
• Search nearby counties for other land transactions involving former owners (especially important in establishing Stover/Brandes connection)
• Go further back in pre-house land deed history
• Ensure that I have located all available probate files available online via FamilySearch/Ancestry; once complete, begin identifying those which are not available online, in order to locate in-person

Library / Historical Societies / Township and Other Repositories

• Inquire at county/township regarding other available tax records
• More extensive search of local directories for former owners at historical society
• Visit library and/or historical society for more background and information on Harry Renninger; Including the various companies he ran (Remlu Building & Loan) and organizations in which he was involved
• Inquire again at Township offices regarding additional records, try Public Works Dept for dates of sewer/water service starts in relation to Building Dept records
• Locate a copy/image of 1925 Sanborn map
• Further research on North Glenside Land Co-- inquire library/historical society
• Make a general inquiry at County Historical Society to determine available resources

Miscellaneous

• Re-examine my home inspection report to glean any further physical clues
• Draft biographical sketches of other previous owners (Brandes complete); this will fuel further research inquiries for each individual
• Contact civil engineering firm that did Ferguson's original survey- can they provide further insight/analysis?
• Continue searching kit house plans and pattern books for a design which may have been used for my house (I have a current front-runner, but it is not an exact match)

As you can see, even though I'm maybe a year into sporadic research and even though I've found quite a bit, there is still alot of homework to do in order to be more thorough and to get the type and depth of information I seek for my house history. You might have noticed I slipped in some additional online research in there-- this exercise has proven useful in that it has identified additional tasks I can perform from home and still make progress. I intentionally left off continued searching and prying the details of my house-- sometimes I wish I could do more invasive investigation, but I don't think my wife would be too happy about that!

If any other seasoned house researchers have followed along with the journey and have additional tips, please let me know in the Comments section!

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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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Analyzing the House's Info Found in Online County Databases

In the last post, I located a significant amount of information for the house via two separate online county databases-- that of the county's tax assessing board and that of the county's Recorder of Deeds. Here, we will expand upon some of this information and offer up what it means to our house history research. We can also take this information and use it to search other places for even further information.

Recap- What We Found

Between the two databases, this is a summary of the NEW information we found:

• 2001 Sale Price was $110,000 (I actually first saw this on Zillow, but the county database is Zillow's source).
• This 2001 transaction, in addition to having Catherine Cantin as grantor (seller) also listed " 'M' Cantlin Atty" on the grantor side.
• The Cantlins (John J & Catherine) took ownership of the house on October 18, 1932.
• The grantor (seller) in the 1932 sale was the Remlu Building and Loan Association.
• The house was assessed at $4,500 in 1987, and re-assessed at $91,800 in 1997.
• The consideration amount for the 1932 was $1,400. 
• The previous owners (2001-14) had multiple mortgages associated with the property.

Using the above new information, let us now analyze this information and perhaps do some quick, simple additional searches.

Analyzing the 2001 Sale

The couple that sold us the house paid $110,000 in 2001 from Catherine Cantlin. From my conversations with the neighbor, I already knew that Ms Cantlin was quite old by this point (I also knew she since passed in 2002, and was born in approximately 1906-07, but I found these out using genealogical search methods I will describe at another time). But the clue of "M (first name withheld here) Cantlin Atty" listed in the index with the 2001 deed is of interest with a new person involved.

Searching for "M" Cantlin by name in the Recorder of Deeds database reveals some interesting new bits. First, a Power of Attorney document was recorded with the county on the same date as the home transaction. This power was granted by Catherine to "M" and "R" Cantlin the year prior (I've since learned that "R", now deceased, was Catherine's son, and "M" her daughter-in-law). Likely, this 2001 sale of the home was a difficult one for the family, with Ms. Cantlin clearly quite elderly and having lived here for many decades. Also found in the search results for "M" Cantlin revealed that she currently owns a house the next block over from mine-- THIS bit of information COULD prove incredibly, incredibly useful, as previous owners are perhaps the most powerful source of inormation for a house history project.

There were two additional mortgages associated with the 2001-2014 owners listed (those mortgages being recorded in 2003 and 2012). Homeowners these days tap into their home equity to make home improvements and even for other non-home related purposes. It is quite clear that these owners put a significant amount of investment into the home over their ownership, with the house jumping in price by about $100,000. These additional mortgages are lower on the priority list to explore further, as the more recent improvements to the house are pretty well and easily known. Further, all of the mortgages were satisified (paid off) so they are of no great consequence at this time. Still, they are a potential source of further information.

Analyzing the 1932 Sale

John J Cantlin and his wife Catherine Cantlin purchased the home from the Remlu Building and Loan Association for (at least) $1,400 on October 18, 1932. On the face of it, this most obviously means that the Cantlins did indeed own the house for the vast bulk of its existence. However, as we saw in our initial census research, they were not the first occupants. This 1932 deed now proves that they were not the first owners. It is important to note that the existence of a deed at a certain time does not in and of itself prove the existence of a house at the same time, however our early research has already shown us a few facts that tell us the house was built prior to 1932-- a) the house is shown on a 1927 map, and b) the Stout family is living at the house on the 1930 census.

Index information of 1932 deed when John and Catherine Cantlin acquired the house.

So, was the Remlu Building and Loan Association, a company, the owner of the home when the Stouts were renting it in 1930? Possibly. We cannot know until we collect all of the deeds for the property to find out if 1930 falls within the period of ownership of the Remlu B&LA. As explained, all of the deeds are not listed online. Since they owned the home up to October 1932, it certainly is quite possible. As we explained briefly in the last post, a Building and Loan Association is a financial institution that focuses on residential lending, and home mortgages in particular. The name "Remlu" is significant, as it showed up on our 1937 map in the name of the neighboring subdivision "Remlu Heights". This small area of North Glenside, according to the Old York Road Historical Society in their Arcadia Images of America publication about Abington, was partially developed by a man named Ulmer, and he used the reverse spelling of his surname (Ulmer -> Remlu) in his subdivision. So, the institution that sold the house to the Cantlins was certainly a local one, and further research on this company may give us further information down the road as they were likely heavily involved in the development of this immediate area. For the time being, one can search the National Information Center for some basic historical information on corporations, and searching for Remlu B&LA tells us that it existed at least as early as 1979 (certainly), in 1982 moved to Wyncote with a slight name change, and was acquired in 1988 by another institution. If we locate a current listing of the acquiring company, there is a chance we could locate some more records.

Back to the Cantlins-- they certainly will figure very prominently in our research moving forward, especially if we can locate some living descendants who may have memories of the home. Mrs Cantlin by all appearances lived in this house for 69 years, and owned it up until within about a year of her death. However, we've now established that the house has a history prior to the Cantlins, and we will seek to find it.

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Using Maps to (More Closely) Date the House

A neighbor, who has been in his house since the 1970s, told me that the elderly woman (the Ms Cantlin mentioned in previous post) who owned the house until 2001 may have been the original owner along with her husband. Ms Cantlin also had relayed to my neighbor at some point that her house was one of the first in the neighborhood. One used to be able to see all the way from the house down to the Ardsley train station 1/2 mile away, according to this account, prior to the bulk of the development of the Ardsley neighborhood at large. Boy, to be able to time travel and see what that was like would be quite something. But, in 2015, we can at least attempt to gain a sense of how this development occurred over time by using maps. Looking at different editions of maps of the same area from different years, we can see in what years a house existed on certain properties, and we can track how the neighborhood grows. Doing so, we can try to verify or disprove the anecdote that this was one of the first houses that popped up.

Types of Maps with Residential Information

Throughout the 19th century and early 20th century, a dense network of railroads was developed in Pennsylvania, primarily to transport coal throughout the region. The growth of the Philadelphia suburbs in large part corresponds to the development of these railways. Most of the surviving rail tracks in the area were once under the domain of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, and some tracks exist today as commuter routes for SEPTA, while most remain in operation for freight lines.

Image courtesy of www.ancestortracks.com

Property atlases were produced by map-making companies, such as A.H. Mueller, during this time and served multiple purposes, including aiding railroad companies to identify ownership of surrounding properties. As these railroad atlases were updated with new editions every 5-10 years, they are very valuable to trace neighborhood development. The most well-known creator of neighborhood maps nationally was the Sanborn Company, which produced detailed maps of cities and towns throughout the United States starting in 1867, to aid fire insurance companies. Some (non-Sanborn) atlases included owner's names, especially if larger land tracts had not yet been subdivided, or if large estates or mansions are shown. If you'd like to read more detailed information about these types of antique maps, see Here, as well as Here For Sanborn Maps.

Locating Historic Maps

One place to try to locate maps of this vintage is through your local historical society-- they may have several editions of these atlases for your area, and they may even have sample images posted on their website. This is exactly the case for the town of Glenside, which is one of the focal areas of the Old York Road Historical Society. I highly suggest visiting your historical society in person as part of your research, as well as supporting them by becoming a member. Other locations, especially for Sanborn maps, might be your local library, or from map companies or dealers themselves. The Library of Congress has a listing of all Sanborn maps and can tell you which repositories have them as part of their collections. Sanborn still operates today, and you can still order copies of their maps from them directly, if you cannot locate a particular map in a repository to which you have access.

I was able to locate the atlas maps for the subject neighborhood for four specific years online via O.Y.R.H.S.: 1897, 1916, 1927,  and 1937. These maps are currently available for use and reproduction through Franklin Maps, the surviving map publisher in the area. Armed with the approximate construction date of 1920 listed with the County, I might expect that the house shows up on the 1927 and 1937 maps, but not on the two earlier maps in 1897 and 1916.

Let's go backwards in time. First, 1937:

*There's the house, highlighted on a portion of the 1937 map. If you click the image at full size, you may be able to tell that even at this point, the house is indeed one of a relative few in existence. The claim that the train station (not shown, off of the bottom of image) would be in view from the house would seem to be plausible.

Next, one step backwards, in 1927:

*The house, highlighted, as well as the house across the street and one a few lots down, are the only in existence on this part of the street. Our subject house is indeed one of the earliest houses built in this subdivision.

1916:

*This image shows greater context and is further zoomed out from the 1927 and 1937 maps. NO HOUSE-- The land on which the house exists today has not yet been subdivided and is part of a 194 acre tract owned by an Emma Spear.

And finally, 1897:

*Similar to the 1917 map, however the owner of the 194 acre tract is Dr. John Spear. A reasonable inference, which will need to be verified, is that John Spear passed on this land to his wife Emma upon his death.

All images are portions of maps available via Franklin Maps.

Analysis and Future Steps

From this fairly straightforward exercise, the house exists on a 1927 map, but does not exist on a 1916 map. Therefore, we can not yet confirm nor disprove the 1920 construction date, although we have definitively narrowed it down to a timeframe between 1916-1927.

Further observations can be gleaned from these maps, such as the progression of names/entities listed for the subdivision just to the south (left of image) such as Wm Penn Real Estate, North Glenside, and Remlu Heights. Since the subject property is right at the border of the Spear tract adjacent to this subdivision, researching this subdivision as well may provide additional information. Some of the other names and labels on the 1927 and 1937 maps seemed to provide additional clues (such as "North Glenside (Ferguson) B 732 P 600"). The exact information, although not apparent at first, did become clear to me during future research, which I will share in due time.

I also will continue to look for additional maps to try to pinpoint the likely year of construction. From the Library of Congress, I can tell that Sanborn maps exist for the area for 1909, 1920, and 1925, so I can try to locate them at a repository.

So what about that Spear tract-- when was that subdivided? Although not apparent from these maps, my next post will reveal the answer...

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