Maybe you can trace your roots back to the Mayflower, but how about your house? What kind of genealogy does it have?

In a class taught by Lori Shafer of the Briggs Lawrence County Library, would-be house genealogists can get the answer to that question?

“We are giving a class on how to do house histories and all the different resources out there,” Shafer said. “It is part of Family History Month, which is in October.”

Resources available to do a historical search of a house are at the library and a variety of places in the area, including the recorder’s office at the Lawrence County Courthouse.

“You start with what you know,” Shafer said. “Then you start looking at the different resources. If it is the city directory, we have then back to the 1880s. Once you find out who lived there, you can search obituaries, courthouse records to see who built it.”

Among the resources at the library are deed indexes to show the different owners of the property, when it was built and what is made of.

The class will be given one time this year on Thursday, Oct. 25, at 6 p.m. at the Ironton branch of the library.

“We have had a lot of people ask about house histories,” Shafer said. “They want to know about where they are living and the families who lived there. And there are always people who think there may be a haunting there. We have people come in and find out their house used to be a school or a boarding house.”

Also in October the Ironton branch of the library will host a Genealogy Lock-In where researchers come in at 6 p.m. and work on family history until midnight.

On Monday Shafer will teach a class at 2 p.m. at the Ironton branch on using the Family Search website created by the Mormons.

“It is a free website and the reason we use it a lot is that it has so many records like Ohio death certificates,” Shafer said. “That is some 20 dollars other places. There have all kinds of records and are continuously adding to it. I found christening records I couldn’t find in the past.”

Microfilm of records can be sent to the library for patrons to review.

The class will also be taught at 6 p.m. on Oct. 18. Registration for all classes is requested.