How do I track the history of an old house? (ie. who lived there)?

Answer 1

Go to your county seat (capital city of the county where you live in your state). Ask to see the records of buying and selling of your house since it was built. Ask realtors in your area to help you how to ask. If you now own the house, there must have been a company that sold you title insurance on the house when you bought it. This means a company that searched the ownership back to the beginning to make sure that some other person could not "come out of left field" to say that they somehow own it. If county clerks, realtors who sold you the house, or insurance companies who sold you title insurance are slow, remind them that you own this information. You paid for this information with taxes, realtors' commissions, and insurance premiums.