To begin to trace the history of your property the best place to
start is by collecting as much information as you can.
The key things to find out are:
- an approximate date of the building
- who holds the deeds
- who owned/lived in the property before you
- was the property built for a specific purpose i.e. school,
public house, vicarage, shop
When you come to us, please bring some official identification
which gives your current address (such as a driving licence,
medical card, new-style passport, or Suffolk County Council library
ticket). We can then issue a
County Archives Research Network ticket, which is valid for
four years. Also, please bring all the information you
have gathered with you and a sketch map showing the location of
your property in relation to the local landmarks. We
will advise you which records to use.
There are basic principles that ill help you make the best use of
your time. If you ignore them, you may find yourself going off on
false trails.
First of all, researching the history of a property is
time-consuming. It will take more than one visit to look through
all the possible sources that could shed light on your property. It
will require patient searching through different types of records
which will often not be indexed.
Most important of all, you should always work from the known to the
unknown. This means starting from the present day, and working
methodically towards the past.
If you do not have time to visit us, our expert staff can carry out
research for you for a fee.
To find out more, please look at: