Interested in when your house was built? Curious about who owned your home before you, or what was on the land a century ago? The City of Toronto Archives contains many sources that can help you answer these questions. This guide explains the best sources for such research, how you use them, and what kind of information you can expect to find.

• Fire insurance plans
• Assessment rolls
• City directories
• Building permits
• Aerial photographs
• Street name and number changes
• Council proceedings
• Maps and atlases
• Photographs

Records from former municipalities are currently being processed and included in our database. See a complete list of our government records.

Researching a property can be like assembling a jigsaw puzzle-one with missing pieces, as well as pieces that belong to another puzzle!

Be patient. Assemble information before you come to any conclusions. Cross-reference information from a variety of sources. Be aware that not all sources are 100% accurate! When recording information, always write down the source, title, page number, microfi lm reel number, or any other available references that will allow you to find the information again, if necessary.

If you have any questions or difficulties finding information, please feel free to ask the Reference Desk staff for help.

Researching Your House is also available in a PDF format in the following lanuages (PDF 600KB):

English
   French
   Italian
   Chinese

You'll need the free Adobe Acrobat reader version 4 to view the pdf files.

Note: To use many of the resources identified above, you must visit the Archives. We regret that these are not available online.