Datestone Historic Property Research

1 Property

3 What the records say

Look up a property to begin.

4 Ownership chain

Work the deeds back to the first owner, then find out who that was. Each name gets its own set of searches: directories and newspapers, the town histories, the ship registers, the registry, and the collections. The chain prints in the report.

Read a deed list from the registry

Search the registry by address, select the whole results grid, copy it and paste it here. The list is read in this browser and not saved; only the owners you add go into the chain.

5 Search by hand and capture what you find

Paste a record here On the record page press Cmd/Ctrl+A then Cmd/Ctrl+C, come back and press Cmd/Ctrl+V.
+ Add to Historic Report

Captured records

Nothing captured yet.

6 Is it historically significant?

Look up a property to begin.

9 Notes, photographs and maps

The review package wants all four elevations; label each one.

Historic maps

A screenshot of the part of an atlas or map that shows the house. Say which map, year and page, and what it shows; it prints with its credit and link.

10 Report

A published link can be read by anyone who has it, without signing in, so a report can be handed to the building department. Anyone not signed in sees a public copy with the current owner's and applicant's details, recent owners and working notes withheld; the commission's people see the full report at the same link. Unpublish to withdraw it.

Add record

Captured text

Cases