I’m here on Jay’s back porch—OK, really on my back porch, but Jay has not updated that drawing yet—enjoying my mug of organically & shade-grown, fair-trade, French-Roast coffee, while Jay is out of sight drawing—something.

According to MY replica “Pruett’s Pig Powders” thermometer (shown in the graphic as on HIS porch where really, there is nothin’ but pillar. Hey, the white tip of Daisy's tail doesn't show up! Jay needs to move her over just a tad so the itp shows!) it is currently 72ºF and humid. BTW: Jay told me I HAD to include all that crap about coffee & temperature because it is our trademark. I think he should butt-out and let me write my way—right?

All that typing just to get to the point of this post: that real estate professionals are creating valuable resources for future generations of amateur & professional house detectives & genealogists.

Every time a home or property is sold, the transaction becomes part of that home’s genealogy, for example from my family history: “The names and later residences of his (Timothy Bordman 1700-1753) children appear in a deed to Daniel Boardman, their brother, Jan. 17, 1769, from Charles and Seth Boardman of Wethersfield, Timothy Boardman and Jonathan Brigden, and Elizabeth his wife, all of Middletown…” [Boardman Genealogy p234] and (John Bordman) “…in a deed of Jan. 17, 1769, when he, with his brothers Charles and Seth of Wethersfield, and the other heirs, sell to their brother Daniel all right to the home lot of their father, Timothy Bordman…” [Boardman Genealogy p289]. As you can see, it also places various ancestors at specific locations at specific dates.

My own home was built in the fall of 1858.  We learned this by reviewing the abstract and discovering that a mortgage was taken out in the late summer/early fall of 1858 in the amount of $400. Imagine that—the house was built for less than the monthly PITI for this home!

So as you go about your professional duties, you are recording history. Some day in the future, a grey-headed descendant of mine, in the Ramsey County Registrar’s office will exclaim: “AHA! Jack & Teresa Boardman DID live in St. Paul as I suspected, Ethyl. It’s right here in the tax records!”

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of future genealogists! Oh, and before I forget—Jay will smack me upside the head with his big stick if I fail to link to “Our Saint Paul” so you might humor us and see what’s going on there!