How to Research Your Historic Property

Finding Construction Date and Improvements For Your Property

Completing deed research and establishing a Chain of Title, or complete list of property owners, will enable you to determine the construction date of your building and possibly improvements that were made over time. Deed research is done from the most recent property purchase to the oldest. Some of this data may be found online in the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation Real Property Data Search database.

I. Find current deed number (composed of liber and folio) on your annual property deed, your county tax assesment form, or use a tax map to find parcel number and parcel book to find current deed number

II. Read current deed

The current deed will allow you to record several important details:
1) date of the most recent property purchase
2) who bought the property (grantee) and who sold the property (grantor)
3) possibly the selling price
4) the previous deed (liber and folio) when the grantor purchased this property

III. Continue working backwards

Record the information outlined in Section II for each subsequent dee until you determine that the property was purchased from a developer or the original town. If a previous deed is not recorded within the deed you are viewing, record the grantor name and use this name in the grantee index to find the deed number.

IV. Tax assessments

Use your completed chain of title to review tax assesment records for additional information. Use each owner's name to look up an property descriptions or improvements. Any large jump in assesment may indicate construction on the property.

V. Compare tax records and chain of title

Comparing the information you recorded from the tax assessments and the chain of title will give you a good record of when your building was constructed or improved.

VI. Other forms of property conveyance

Property may be transferred also through a will or an equity court decree. In a will, the deceased (testator) devises land to heirs; use the testator's name in an index at the Register of Wills to follow the property transfer. In an equity court decree, the court assigns property in the potential case of a foreclosure or when a property owner dies intestate (without a will); use the equity indices in Land Records for your research.

Locations for referenced source material

I. Prince George's County Administration Building, 14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive,Upper Marlboro, Maryland 20772

Deeds 1840 to present: earlier land records held at Maryland Hall of Records, Annapolis
Chancery cases 1820 -1852
Equity cases 1852-present
Wills 1696-present Administration papers

II. School records, Administration Building, Upper Marlboro, Maryland

School Board Journals Vol. I 1865-1903. Vol. II 1903-1921, Vol. III 1921-1940, etc.

III. Supplemental Records, History Division, George Washington House, 4302 Baltimore Avenue, Bladensburg, Maryland

Newspapers: National Intelligencer 1800-1845 on microfilm; Maryland Gazette 1745-1839 on microfilm and PG County notebook of excerpted items
Census Records: paper copy for 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900; microfilm for 1800, 1810, 1820, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910
School Board Journals: copies
Freedman's Bureau records on microfilm
Tax Assesments: 1798 on microfilm; paper copy for 1800, 1831, 1840
Insurance rates for 1921

IV. Maryland Room and microfilm room, Hyattsville Public Library, 6530 Adelphi Road, Hyattsville, Maryland 20782

Secondary Sources on all aspects of Maryland history, geography, economy, architecture, etc.
PG County tombstone records, compiled by DAR, 1954
PG County marriage icenses 1777-1886
Maryland Historical Magazine 1906-present
Microfilm: will, inventories, bonds, accounts, Census records 1790-1910, tax assessments 1793-1871

V. Prince George's County Historical Society, Library, Marietta, 5626 Bell Station Road, Glenn Dale, Maryland

Maryland Historical Magazine
Newspapers: Planters' Advocate 1851-1861 on microfilm; P.G. Enquirer 1893-1925 on microfilm
Photographs: wide variety of historic PG County photos
Archives of Maryland
Town Histories: histories published by several PG County towns
Secondary Sources: various subjects publications dealing with PG County history

VI. Library of Congress, Geography And Map Room, Madison Building, Washington, DC

Maps: Local and regional maps including Hyattsville and environs
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: Hyattsville for 1906, 1911, 1922, 1933 show details of building footprints and construction materials

VII. Hall of Records. Maryland State Archives, 350 Boulevard. Annapolis, Maryland

Tax assesments: tax assessments for individual properties 1871-present listed by name within county, year, and Election District

VIII. Maryland Room, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

Comprehensive collection of primary and secondary Maryland resources including maps, Baltimore News-American photo archives, state and local government documents, 100 collections of family papers, and The Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Maryland

IX. National Trust for Historic Preservation Library. McKeldin Library. University of Maryland.

Collection contains preservation topics from technical to aesthetic, including Preservation Magazine, League of Historic American Theaters papers and Sears home research donated by Houses By Mail authors

X. Washingtoniana Room, Martin Luther King public Library, 9th and G Streets, NW, Washington, DC

Microfilm of early Washington Post and Washington Star newspapers