Using occupants to find information on a property
Once you have owner and occupant information, you can use people’s names to find more details on both their life and the ongoing life of the building. See the section above on searching digitised newspapers in Trove. Use keywords that combine owners’/occupants’ names and property details. You may find the house number, name of the street and even the areas changes over time, so be flexible with your search terms.
You can also search the Tasmanian Names Index for additional information:
- Census records listed under the householder’s name for some years between 1837 and 1857 (a selection only, as most individual returns have not survived). They are more detailed from 1842, indicating address, construction type of a building – stone, brick or wood, and give details on the make-up of the household, for example name of householder, number of people generally residing there and number who were free. The return also has information on the ages, sex, religion, occupation or calling of the persons residing in the house, but usually not their names.
- Wills can be used to trace property history. If the will you are looking for is not available, you can contact the Land Data Registration Branch of the Land Titles Office, as they have copies of some wills relating to land transfers. Also see our guide to Tasmanian wills.