Plat Maps

Cranston, Rhode Island Document Search, 2014

Document Search, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Learning About Property Records

As time has progressed, I have been learning about house and land research. I really was lucky (so I have been told) to be able to find the property cards and other documents for many of the houses in my family. Not all of these types of records are online. Many times, going to the town or city hall will NOT get you the information that you are seeking. Not all of this type of information has been archived. This blog post is just for informational purposes.

Property Assessor's Card, 1954, cropped with plat and lot number, 2013, Cranston, RI City Archive Online

I accessed the "Assessor" part of several ancestor's town or city Web sites. I needed to know the Plat and Lot number to find the card. In the example of my parent's house shown above, I was very pleased to see many years archived. I chose the 1954 Assessor Field Card by clicking the "document icon" at the far right to get the PDF for that year. Realtors and attorneys need this information for the purchase and sale of property and it is public record right now. I am showing this crop because my readers know that my parents are deceased.

What is a plat map?

Some of the things I learned from my house investigation was that I might be able to find out the type of house that is on the property, a photo of the property, the date the house was built and how many people have owned the house. Since only two families have owned the house since I sold it in 2002, my father's name appeared as the original owner. I also learned that to research the house, I might need to find the book and page that the transaction appeared on.

Of course, the cost for the sale of the house has increased so dramatically that all I could do was be more amazed at comparing it to the original price my parents' paid. It was good to see that it has been lovingly cared for and improvements have been made.

From tragedy comes the hope for a better life. The young couple who bought my parents' house had a tragedy. It was so awful that it caused me to have to relive my parents' deaths and the selling of the house. I am happy to report that Stephanie, who lived in the house and I are now Facebook Friends. She sold the house and then experienced great tragedy. The story is hers but the connection through social media helped me a lot. She's a lovely person. I hope she can stay in the light and that we will always be connected by "The Plat".