Despite having two kids at home (T with something unidentified but virus-like, with chills and aches, M with a probable UR virus that’s got her spiking 103 fevers), I spent today in the county clerk’s office, running back the ownership on Our House to the original plat. I succeeded after six hours’ work, tracing the title from us all the way back to the original lot’s sale in 1901. One interesting discovery was that there was a dwelling someplace on the block as early as 1905, when it was still undivided; the deed stipulates that the purchaser “shall carry a fire insurance policy on the dwelling house purchased in some good and reliable Fire Insurance Co.’ until such time as the note is paid off.
Now I have this information, I can go back to the county tax records and look for jumps in the property value, indicating when improvements were made to the house—I undertook the project as a way of trying to establish when the additions to the back of the house were made. A side benefit is that I can go looking for descendants of previous residents, to see if they have family pictures of earlier date that would have the house visible in it. (This is the way one goes about figuring out what kind of remuddles have been done, and what it was like before the remuddles happened, in case it’s possible to undo them one day.)
The eland from Copenhagen will go to your place. Fnord.
