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Health & Fitness

If These Walls Could Talk, Part III: How to Research the History of Your House

Ever wonder about the history of your house? Here's how we did it and how you can too!

In we traced the history of our property from mission grazing lands to when our house was built in 1947. In we shared the tragic story of the prominent Campbellite who built our house. Here in Part III we share our tips and resources for how to research the history of YOUR house.

Chronological Transaction History of Our House

5/28/1945- Ainsley Corporation creates subdivision from a cherry orchard in our neighborhood

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12/18/1946- Lot sold by Ainsley Corporation to James Benjamin Arends, Jr. and Evelyn Marie Arends who buildt our house in 1947

10/5/1955- Transferred to Evelyn Arends as her sole property as part of divorce settlement

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7/31/1956- Sold by Evelyn Arends to Roy and Eva Harrison (Evelyn moved to Santa Barbara where she died 6 months later)

3/13/1959- Sold by Harrison to Gordon and Ruth Mapes

4/5/1960- Sold by Mapes to Jesse and Mildred Cox

12/29/1964- Mildred Cox awarded house in divorce

7/22/1980- Sold by Cox to James Gurtowski

1/20/1993- Sold by Gurtowski estate to Jonas Milaszius

11/06/2006- Transferred to trust for Irina Milaszius (Jonas died 5/15/2007)

1/29/2009- Sold by Milaszius to David and Darlene Steele

Why Research the History of Your House?

History is fascinating. Stories of buildings and houses are really stories of people just like us. Why care about the history of your house? Why care about the history of your town? The past got us here and we live with it every day, whether we know it or not. If you believe in karma, energetics, etc., objects and places hold onto the energy of past people and events. Wouldn't you like to know what energy you're living with every day (even if you don't believe in that kind of thing... just in case)?

If you have an older house, look around and you'll see much evidence of former residents, people just like you who lived, died, made love, got married or divorced, had babies, raised kids, gardened, decorated for Halloween and Christmas, cooked and served meals, and all the stuff of life. Kids never forget the house in which they grew up.

Our house was there before us and will outlive us, we're just the temporary tenants and caretakers. After you've moved on what legacy will you leave behind for future residents? Will they (as we do) shake their head at some funky repair or "improvement" you left behind and wonder "What were they thinking!?"

Every time we see the exposed rafters in our garage we're reminded "That wood came from the Campbell Lumber Company, the oldest business in Campbell and the family business of J.B. Arends Jr., the prominent and tragic man who built our house."

Every time we take out the garbage and pass by "J.M." etched on the concrete patio we're reminded of Jonas Milaszius, who lived, loved, and died in our house and his lovely wife Irina who entrusted to us her house full of memories, sad to move but glad to see her house shelter a family who would care for it and appreciate its history and legacy.

Every time we pass our indestructible, overbuilt white picket fence we're reminded "We built that!" and know it will be there for future generations.

Morbid? Far from it. History reminds us of our mortality and the part we play connecting past and future, that life is precious and transient and to be appreciated and lived to the fullest while we're here.

Research Resources and Tips

The older your house the more fascinating its history and the more challenging it can be to uncover its secrets.

Property Records

Your search will probably start with past owners of your house. Once you know names and dates the other resources mentioned below become useful.

For property records prior to 1/1/1981 you must go to the Santa Clara County Clerk-Recorder's office at 70 West Hedding St. in San Jose and search through microfilm records. Instructions are here.

Start searching records the year your house was built until you find the original transaction, which will tell you who the buyer and seller were. Knowing the buyer, you can then search following years for records in their name until you find the sales transaction and who they sold to, and so on until 1981 where finding this information online is far easier. 

For records after 1/1/1981 you can search online here- http://www.clerkrecordersearch.org/ using the Assessor's Parcel Number (APN) of your property, as well as the name of the seller ("Grantor") or buyer ("Grantee").

Alternatively, you could start by searching the online database to obtain the name of the oldest listed seller, then go the the Clerk-Recorder's office and work backwards.

This is how we compiled the above transaction history of our house.

Old property records are listed alongside other official records such as death, divorce, business incorporations, establishment of trusts, etc, providing many clues to major events involving your house. 

Books

We highly recommend Jeanette Watson's great book Campbell: The Orchard City. It's an incredibly comprehensive accounting of the history of Campbell, its people and events from the beginning. It's a huge coffee table book with lots of photos and images, out of print but still available (and affordable) from Amazon.com and Abesbooks.com (at this writing copies are available starting from $20.00). Images of America, Campbell, CA provides photos and facts as well, though not nearly as comprehensive.

Campbell Historical Museum

The good folks at the Campbell Historical Museum are very happy to help residents research Campbell history and have a treasure trove of old maps, records, photos, etc they are very willing to share (with supervision!) when asked. Simply contact them by telephone or email for an appointment. See photos in   for some of the gems we obtained from them about our house and property.

Santa Clara County Archives

For information and documents not available from the resources above, a great listing of resources for historical and archived information and documents available in Santa Clara County is here

Archived Newspapers at Campbell Library

While property records reveal who bought and sold your house, the local newspaper can provide much more historical information on the area and its residents. Campbell Library has all the past issues of the Campbell Press (precursor of the Campbell Express) on microfilm and tripping through the history of Campbell through the eyes of this resident-centric local newspaper is absolutely fascinating and a treasure trove of information about local residents and events over the years. The advertisements are a hoot. Back in the day, small events we take for granted such as having a relative visit from back east was newsworthy!

See images from the Campbell Press about the Arends murder/suicide in  . We found lots of mentions of the Arends family in back issues, including an announcement when J.B., Jr.  was discharged by the Navy and returned home, mentioning he was "a radar man on the Destroyer Nichols." If you like history and detective work, these little nuggets of information are fun to find!

Old Timers

Another great source of info are local residents who grew up near your house and original owners (if they're still around). One of our neighbors a couple of doors down is an original owner who knew Evelyn Arends very well, played cards with her, and described her husband J.B., Jr. as a "scoundrel." Another neighbor who lives down the street grew up in our neighborhood and remembered the cherry trees. Prior to that conversation we knew the land was an orchard but we couldn't find information about what fruit was grown. Firsthand accounts are the best!

Building Permits

Building permits can reveal a lot about your house. You can search the past 20 years or so of Campbell building permits online here

The nice folks at the City of Campbell Building Department at City Hall are very friendly and willing to find older building permits for you. Just walk up to the counter and give them your address.

Online

It's certainly easy enough to conduct an internet search on anyone's name to learn more about them. If you're serious and want all available information about someone we were amazed at the information available on http://www.ancestry.com/  We used the free trial to research past owners of our house, ourselves, family members, and found data on births, marriages, divorces, property transactions, military service, employment, past and current home addresses, it's pretty amazing.

Have fun researching your house!

Got a house with an interesting history?

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