Research Your Home’s Heritage

If you own an older home, you may be interested to learn more about its construction, the identity of the previous owners and their families, and the history of found items. This section will take you through this process. It’s a lot of fun and you don’t even have to leave your home to do it.

Sources of information include:

• Your local Archives

  • City Directories

  • Fire Insurance Maps

  • Building Permits

  • Property Tax Assessments

  • Photos of your house or neighbourhood

• Websites

  • City Directories

  • 1852, 1901 and 1911 Canadian Census documents

  • Birth, marriage and death certificates

• Your Library

  • Newspapers

• Municipal Hall

  • Blueprints

• Your House

  • Letters, Mortgage documents, Building permits

• Your local cemetery

  • Birth and Death information

Research Links

• Complete step-by-step instructions on how to research the history of your home (downloadable Word document).  
• A House Research Guide produced by the District of West Vancouver.
• A video on the story of the history of a North Vancouver home by a Heritage Fair student..