Bernal History ProjectHonoring the history of San Francisco's Bernal Heights and supporting the preservation
of its architectural heritage and character
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Research Your Home
Getting Started: Researching the History of Your Home
1. The City Assessor's Office
Bernal History Project volunteers have mapped the whole neighborhood using the city's Assessor's Office.Enter your address here to get your "parcel information" -- your block and lot number. For example, 533 Ellsworth is block number 5725, lot number 025.
E-mail us if you'd like to see Excel files for your block.
Then click on that number to see the most recent city records for your home, including number of rooms, construction type, zoning code, and year of construction.
One Victorian warning: Many city records were destroyed in the fire and earthquake of 1906. For that reason, many houses that were built long before 1900 are often listed only as having a 1900 construction date.
2. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Read more about the maps here. They are extremely useful large-scale maps; here is a key to the symbols used.
To view these online, you'll need SFPL library membership. Enter your library card number here.
Go to Browse Maps, selecting California and San Francisco from the drop-down menus. Next, select a date.
Local history site SF Genealogy has links to the 1899 and 1900 maps (no library card needed)
BHP wants to make it easier for you! We've identified the main volumes that contain Bernal Heights maps.
Bernal streets can be found in the 1886-1893 files in volume 5, 1886, pages 136-144; 1899-1900 files in volume 5, 1900, pages 571-596; and in the 1913-1915 files in volume 8, 1914 (pages 771-773, 779-780, more to come), and volume 9, 1915.
(To search for other areas of the city, choose a volume number and select the index -- usually the first couple of pages -- to find your street name, and then the volume.)
Note that some street names changed over the years, and house numbers changed, too.
3. City Directories
These are like phone books that also list residents' occupations. If you know the name of the person who lived in your house, you can search under last name. If not -- you can go through the whole directory and hope you hit on your street address!
Some good news: BHP has already collated the Bernal residents of the 1922 directory, so if your house is old enough, that might be a good place to start. We are working on the 1915 directory at the moment.
SF Genealogy has an extremely helpful list of available directories. The Internet Archive also has free downloadable versions of several directories.
Links to online San Francisco city directories (all free and searchable):
1915 directory (free site pass required)The San Francisco History Center has a great webpage with lots of information on this subject.