While recently researching the history of another house that we own, I ran into a dead end at the recorder of deeds office. I know who owned the property in 1889, and I know all the owners from the present back until 1938. But I cannot find my 1938 owner as a Grantee, meaning I don’t know who he bought the property from so that I can continue backwards. I was examining my options, and thinking about the fact that while the house is located in Shrewsbury now (and in fact the area was developed as Shrewsbury Park in 1889), Shrewsbury itself did not incorporate until 1913. Obviously city records would not be of benefit to me since we know through the building materials used that the house was built before 1900. Who had responsibility for Shrewsbury Park prior to 1913? My first stop today was to the Webster Groves Library, as the two cities overlap and Webster incorporated in 1896. I was able to look through the 1897 tax records on microfilm, which would represent taxes assessed for the year 1896. As I’m not certain of the owner of my property that year, I looked through all the addresses which, of course, are in date order and not alphabetical. I didn’t see the exact address I was looking for listed, but by chance I noticed the name of a woman who was listed in the 1909 plat book as owning the lot next to ours, or possibly all three lots (10, 11 and 12.) In the Webster tax records it showed that she owned 10 and 12 on Big Bend. If I can verify that indeed her 12 Big Bend is our lot 12 on Big Bend, I can then go look her up in the deed records. This is a perfect example of why it is important in your research to always write down all the names that you find. You never know when a name may provide you with a clue that takes you in a new direction.
