Hitting Gold.

“The most essential factor is persistence - the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come.”

-James Whitcomb Riley

After hours of searching I finally can see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. I found my first picture of Our Little 1900's house! It only dates back to 1951 or 52 but thats 60 years and a great start! Check out our Palm trees?! If you zoom a lot the house number reads 709 Johnson Street.

This picture was actually listed under my neighbors house since it was her husbands family that were Realtors back in the day. The house was listed with them in 1951!



We also discovered that Peggy Hodges was a Strawberry Festival Queen back in 1949. I am pretty sure she was a cousin of James R. Hodges who owned our home.

We were so excited to get more information that we decided to make the trip out to the Tampa Courthouse so we could search through older records. Our local records only date back to 1965- the Tampa records go ALL the way back. 

We discovered Washington Park (Our Subdivision) was plotted in 1907 so most likely the subdivision came after our home was built. We tracked the original deed from when James R. bought it in 1951 from William  M. Avery and Mary Frances. When we pulled up the microfilm of the actual deed only the signatures were on the document! All of the legal information and descriptions had been whited out. 

So we had to put in a special request to have them bring the original book of documents up from storage, which will be about a week.

So for now things are on hold until next week. I am sure people think I'm nuts for going to this much trouble on the chance I might get a picture or two from the original family. And perhaps I am, but something is pushing me on and I can't ignore it. Its just one of those things that must be done. Somethings never change.