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5 recommendations and reviews from 5 people

• Referral from March 23, 2017
  

  Caren L. asked:

  Fellow historians, is there a way to determine the builder of our 1917 home? The abstract was lost and was only recreated to the 70s. The City indicated any building permit from that time period would have been lost to the floods, so they did not want to research. I've research transfer records and Lytton Younker owned the land and facilitated the sale of the house after it was built. But I'd like to know who actually built it. Other avenues?

  

  Kelli L. replied:

  Try narrowing down the earliest residents using the city directories. They're available by searching for "Des Moines city directory" on archives.org

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• Referral from July 1, 2015
  

  Charnee S. asked:

  Do any of you WNY experts have suggestions for this problem? After having YDNA done, we find that our gggrandfather's paternal ancestors were Smith, not Boon (the name he had). So I am assuming that his mother was Boon. Is that a valid assumption? And if so, how can I dig out his parentage since he was born in 1834 in Erie County, so there were no birth records kept. The family has searched for his parentage for 50 years!!! So I don't think we have missed any records of a Boon father, at least of one who was married to the mother.

  

  Ellen B. replied:

  Search Google Books archives.org and Hathi trust for any Baptist annual meeting records. County histories. City directories list churches and titles like Rev.

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• Referral from May 1, 2015
  

  Alyssa R. asked:

  Any contractors on here? Advice needed! We are unexpectedly thrust into a buying land and building house scenario due to an unexpectedly crazy housing market. It will be cheaper to buy and build than trying to find a fixer. Because we were not expecting to build so soon, we are overwhelmed trying to find plans for a budget house. Do any of you have ideas where I can look? We are on a tight time limit. House needs to be built in 6mo from signing. Also, what are things that make a house more expensive and how can we avoid them? We are a family of 6, thinking 1500-1800 sq. ft. Can I build for 100K?

  

  Bev N. replied:

  Plan well. You don't need as much room as you think you do. Keep things square, bumps and gables and the like cost more. There are very few plans for good homesteading type houses but I'd try archives.org and see if there are any old house plans on there. I haven't looked but they may have some. If I every built I'd do one of the houses that I have plans for that are from the 1910-20 s. They are small, square, and have the things a homesteader needs.

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• Referral from March 28, 2015
  

  Vera B. asked:

  Where can I find out if an epidemic happened at a particular time in history in a particular place? In Berks County Pennsylvania, there seem to be a rash of infant deaths in my Butz/Butts family in the 18th century. I found one identified as smallpox. I know there were smallpox epidemics sweeping the states around the time of the Revolutionary War, but don't know if there is a good source for records of such epidemics.

  

  Vera B. replied:

  For all trying to be helpful with Google suggestions. I always start there but did not find anything specific enough. Just was hoping there might be some centralized health-reporting thing. Ann, I Love Google Books for the county histories and also archives.org, too.

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• Referral from January 30, 2015
  

  Jordy D. asked:

  anybody knows where to find sounds or songs to add to videos that i can download for free.

  

  Najat J. replied:

  Archives.org

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