Researching your inner-west home

While it can be difficult to always obtain the exact date of a house, there are a number of resources which may assist you in searching for the history of a property. As with any research activity, house history research requires patience, exactness and a touch of lateral thinking. The main place to begin is by asking the question - What is it that I really want to know? You might want to contemplate the following:

• The exact date of the house

• An approximate date that the house was built

• The name of the house

• Information about the owners or occupiers of the house

Your research strategy can be determined by the answer to your question. Once you know what kind of information you are seeking, you can then decide on which of the following resources will be most helpful. Where you live will determine the level of information you can find on your property, as different inner-west councils hold records of greater or lesser detail - see below for details of some of the resources available in your area.

The Sands Directory

The original intention of the publishers of this Directory was to provide a Sydney-wide commercial directory. Over time, this extended to NSW country areas. the Directory covers the period 1858-1932/33. It is organised chronologically and can provide an approximate date for when the house was built; a history of those who lived in the house and sometimes their occupation. Sands may also provide you with the name of the house.

It is not difficult to use, but does require time and patience. You will start with a date that you know the house was built and work chronologically backwards from there. When the house first appears in Sands, it is about a year old due to publishing timelines. There are some 'buts' about Sands. It isn't 100% accurate which is why you need to search over a period of time. And it wasn't produced for the years 1860; 1862; 1872; 1878 and 1881. Also, the earlier issue, that is prior to 1880, don't give detail that Sands publishers provided in later years.

However, if you have the time to spend looking at this Directory, it can be very rewarding. It now provides a useful social history of Sydney suburbs over a large period of time. At the same time also, you can find out lots of interesting pieces of information about the history of your house.

The Sands Directory is available at -

Ashfield Library

Balmain Library

Burwood Library

Five Dock Library

Leichhardt Library

Rate and valuation books:

Some of the information that may be held in rate books of interest to property researchers include the name of the owner, the lot number and size, alterations or additions to property etc.

Annandale, Balmain and Leichhardt Councils

Throughout 2007/2008, Leichhardt Council is copying to microfiche: Annandale Council rate books, 1880 - 1920, Balmain Council rate books, 1908 - 1920 and Leichhardt Council rate books, 1880 - 1920. For further information on the progress of this copying project, contact the Local History Librarian on (02) 9367 9266

Ashfield Council

More details soon.

Burwood Council

More details soon.

Canada Bay Council

Rate Books for the former Municipality of Five Dock covering the years 1871 - 1901 are held in the Local Studies Collection at Five Dock Library. (The Municipality of Five Dock was proclaimed in July 1871. It included the present day suburb of Drummoyne. In 1890, the Boroughs of Drummoyne and Five Dock split into two seperate municipalities only to reunite as the Municipality of Drummoyne in March 1902.)

Rate Books for the former Municipality of Drummoyne covering the years 1894 - 1928 are held at State Records at Kingswood. See: www.records.nsw.gov.au

Valuation Books for the former Municipality of Drummoyne covering the years 1903 through to 1980 are held at State Records at Kingswood. See: www.records.nsw.gov.au

Valuation Books for the former Municipality of Concord covering the years 1938 - 1963 (incomplete) are held at State Records at Kingswood. See: www.records.nsw.gov.au

Strathfield Council

More details soon.

Subdivision Plans:

Subdivision plans often include real estate agent's markings showing blocks which sold at auction, and sometimes the prices along with house names.

Ashfield Library

More details soon.

Burwood Library

More details soon.

Five Dock Library

A selection of subdivision plans are held in hard copy format in the Local Studies collection at Five Dock Library. These predominantly cover the former Municipality of Drummoyne with a few covering the former Municipality of Concord area.

Leichhardt Library

A selection of subdivision plans on microfiche and in hard copy format are held at Leichhardt Library in the Local History collection. These cover the suburbs of Annandale, Balmain, Birchgrove, Leichhardt, Lilyfield and Rozelle.

Strathfield Council

More details soon.

Taking your property research further:

Land and Property Information (previously the Land Title Office)

The Sands Directory can provide you with information about the occupiers of a house. If you want details about the owners, you can go to Land and Property Information (LPI) where there are a range of resources which can help you. Your current rate notice will provide you with a Deposit Plan (DP) number which will allow you to search particular information about a property. When you buy a house, you can obtain a copy of the current Certificate of Title. This will give you information about previous owners and each Title document has a number, often a Vol/Folio number which will enabe you to carry out retrospective searches.

Architectural historian Peter Reynolds notes the following about Land Titles searches: "Land Titles are primarily concerned with boundaries and not the buildings contained within those boundaries. But if you have the time, a title search can be rewarding, interesting and exciting."

"The certificate of title records each change of ownership by dealing notation. Each notation on each title shows a dealing number. The actual dealings show the purchase price and mortgage. If you have the time and energy, it is possible to trace your property back to the first titles in NSW, which were land grants.

Some terms you may come across at LPI -

Folio: Leaf of paper especially one numbered only on the front.

Volume: Set of sheets of paper usually printed, bound together and forming part of the whole of a work, or comprising several works

Title: The right of ownership of property with or without possession

Messuage: Dwelling house without buildings and land assigned to its use

Old System: The title (ownership) of a particular piece of land was established by examining a bundle of documents known as the chain of title. In Australia, the chain commenced with the originial Crown Grant and each time the land was sold another deed was drawn up and added to the chain. The documents (deeds) forming the chain had to be handed to the purchaser on the signing of each new deed of sale and purchase. Under this system, the sale and purchase of land was essentially a private matter between the vendor (seller) and the purchaser. There was nothing compulsory about the procedure: it was a matter of judgement and prudence whether you registered a deed or not. (A gentleman's agreement!)

Torrens title: Name after Robert Richard Torrens in South Australia. The basis of this system is a State guaranteed (government guaranteed) title. All transfers of land must, by law, be registered at the Titles Office and open for public scrutiny. Complex deeds are replaced by short and simple documents. Torrens is land rather than name based.

Land and Property Information has records going back to 1792, such as grant registers, vendors index, purchasers index and Torrents title registers. See www.lpi.nsw.gov.au for further details.