You own a home that you're proud to call your own. But someone owned it before you. Someone built it, cared for it, and made changes through the years.

Now you're interested in finding out the "who, when and what" of your property. Researching your house can be fun, fascinating and completely engrossing. The following information will help you begin, offering advice on how to identify basic information about your house and your neighborhood. It is designed to take you step-by-step through the process.

Using the sources discussed here, you can determine:

• The date your house was built.
  
• Whether an architect was associated with its design.
  
• Who built it.
  
• Changes that may have been made to it over the years.

Research can be addictive, and also be frustrating. You may exhaust every source possible and still not find the answers to your questions. But no matter how many questions remain unanswered, you will have unearthed some interesting information, learned a little more about your community, and become familiar with some important public institutions in the city.

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This section is republished with permission, slightly modified from a Chicago Focus to reference general links and resources for identifying and tracing the history of your home!

Special Thanks to: The Ridge Historical Society of Chicago, IL

The Ridge Historical Society website is a free resource for students, historians and anyone interested in the area history. But in order to keep it going, please consider giving back, whether as an individual or an organization, through one of the following means, according to your financial ability.

To donate or become a member click here.