Editor's Note: This series examines questions excerpted from Producing a Quality Family History, by Patricia Law Hatcher. The first segment in the series contained groups of questions you may ask as you prepare your family history. The second part of the series addressed some general resources for locating historical data that will turn those scraps of paper into a captivating and interesting family history.

In the upcoming weeks and months, the Daily News will periodically pick a group of questions and guide you to some resources that can help you answer these questions as they pertain to your ancestors' lives. Today's installment will address the context of housing.

Housing
Was the house built of boards, stripped logs, sod? How did they seal out the weather? What was the roof made of? What was the foundation made of? How many rooms were there? How big were they? What was each room used for?

Was there a porch, a lean-to? What about out-buildings? How was the chimney constructed? Did the farm animals stay in a building that was attached or detached?

What material was the floor made of? Was it raised? How about the walls? Were they finished, wallpapered, newspapered? Were there any decorations? Were there any windows? How many? What shape and size? Did they have glass? Did they open? How?

What was the finest possession in the home?

Historical societies or museums in the area often preserve and maintain historic old homes in a particular area.

Example
See The Ancestry Family Historian's Address Book for organizations and resources across the United States.

The Allen County Public Library's Periodical Source Index (PERSI) is a wonderful resource for finding historical information. An online search at: www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/periodicals/persi/main.htm (Member database) under U.S. Locality Search for the keyword "cabin" and record type "history" produced 254 hits (in all states). Some of these include:

• "Daily Life in a Klondike Cabin" in a periodical called Californians published by Grizzly Bear Publishing Company.
• "Log Cabin Lore" in the Lake Tahoe Historical Society Quarterly published by the Lake Tahoe Historical Society
• "Swedish Book Cabin" in the Swedish-American Historical Quarterly (formerly the Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly) published by Swedish-American Historical Society
• "Pioneer Log Cabin" in the Nostalgia News II published by the Johnson County (IN) Historical Society
• "Log Cabin Days Along Salt Creek" in Illumination published by Republic County Historical Society
• "Rolling up a Cabin Provided Pioneers First Homes" in the Kentucky Explorer published by Kentucky Explorer

There are also some great Web exhibits that can give you a glimpse into the housing of your ancestors. Below are a few examples I have found:

Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey
Library of Congress, American Memory Project
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hhhtml/hhhome.html
(Many of the photos in this collection are not digitized online, as of yet, but reproductions can be ordered. For details visit: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hhhtml/hhorder.html)

Lower East Side Tenement Museum
www.wnet.org/archive/tenement/
("Visit two apartments as they appeared at 97 Orchard St. in the 1870s and 1930s, using navigable QuickTime VR panoramas.")

"There are no Renters Here: Women's Lives on the Sod House Frontier" (Exhibit at the Women of the West Museum)
www.wowmuseum.org/gallery/sod/index.html

Fort Collins, Colorado, Online History and Architecture Database
http://library.ci.fort-collins.co.us/archive/Default.htm

"The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906"
Library of Congress, American Memory Project
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/papr/nychome.html

New York Municipal Archives Tax Photos
www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doris/html/archives.html
(Photos of every residence in the five boroughs from 1939-1941 can be ordered using the order form at: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doris/html/tpof.html)

Lansing Historical Association's Outhouse Project
www.lightlink.com/dagra/lanhist/outhouse.htm

Josephine County (OR) Historical Society—Schmidt House
www.webtrail.com/jchs/schmidt.html

Visit your state of interest's Web page. The Secretary of State is often in charge of the state archives and historical preservation programs. You can find any state's page by using the following example:

http://www.state.(state's two letter abbreviation).us

For example, Indiana would be:
www.state.in.us/

See the entire series:
Part 1: Turning Paper into People
Part 2: Historical Context
Part 3: Clothing and Food
Part 4: Migration
Part 5: Land
Part 6: Ethnicity
Part 7: Housing
Part 8: Community
Part 9: Environment
Part 10: Family

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