How to Research Your Land's History · Section 6 of 7

6. Getting started

Written by AI A draft for Dr. Bob Zybach's review, written by AI from his four published documents (one of them, Coquelle Trails, written with Don Ivy). Words inside quotation marks are quoted from those documents, with the page. He has not reviewed this draft.

A checklist for your first season. The order is this booklet’s suggestion, not a rule; change it to suit your place. One field or one section is plenty to start with.

1. Write down your questions: what you want to know, and for which years.
2. Find your township, range and section (section 4). Tax lot maps are drawn on the same survey lines (paraphrase; Great Fires 2003, p. 91).
3. Start a file. For every record, note what it is, who made it, when, and where you found it, and label every copy the same way.
4. Go through family papers, photographs and letters. The attic is closer than the archive.
5. Get copies of the original survey plat and field notes for your township (section 2 says where).
6. Collect aerial photographs of your place from as many years as you can find.
7. List the older neighbors and former owners who know the place, and visit them soon (section 3).
8. Record each interview with permission, and give the speaker the transcript to check.
9. Walk the land with your copies in hand, and photograph from the spots where old photographs were taken.
10. Lay the records side by side by date. Note where they agree, where they don’t, and what new questions they raise.
11. Write down what you found and how sure you are, in plain words.
12. Know where this booklet stops. It is about historical research, not title research. Questions about boundaries or ownership belong with a surveyor, a title company or a lawyer.

Still open Where to get help, and one simple ask of the reader: wording for Dave and Bob