Your Researcher

As I grew up, my dream of working in archaeology fell by the wayside but my love of history never left me. In high school I developed a new love, a passion for languages. I studied French and Spanish and later Japanese and Mandarin at University. (Now I am learning Italian). In 1980 I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a BA in Asian Studies.

I spent a total of two and a half years in Japan studying at the University of Okayama. There I researched, among other things, the development of medieval Japanese Castle Towns using original 16th and 17th century brush-written documents called Komonjo and maps called Ezu.

For the past twenty-five years I have put my knowledge of spoken and written Japanese to work in the travel industry where I worked as a Japanese language tour guide, escort, and interpreter all across Canada. I have escorted tours from Canada to Japan as well.

In 1995 I moved from the West End into a heritage house on Odlum Drive in Vancouver's Grandview-Woodland area. I fell in love with the house and the neighbourhood and spent many hours researching the history of the previous occupants and owners of my home. I learned a lot about my house and its occupants, but I wanted more. I wanted a context for the information, so I expanded my research to include the history of all the homes on my side of the street, then the other side of the street, then finally, the entire block. I repeated this whole process when I moved into a row house in the 700 block of Hawks Avenue in Strathcona.

When my friends and neighbours saw how far I had gone in my research and the detailed information I had been able to produce, they told me I should do this as a business. What a great idea, I thought. It's not exactly archaeology but it is still uncovering history - the history of home and neighbourhood. I have wanted to work at something different for a while. Home History Research not only satisfies my curiosity about Vancouver's past, it allows me to use the language, organizational and other research skills I have acquired over the years to help people have a deeper, more intimate and meaningful connection with their home and neighbourhood. In one week I can usually dig up as much information that it would often take homeowners years, even decades, to uncover.

Over the past seven years I have researched the history close to 500 houses, commercial buildings, and even a hotel in virtually every Vancouver neighborhood, as well as over a dozen in New Westminster. My clients include proud, history-curious homeowners, as well as house builders, restorers and renovators, and even realtors specialising in the heritage home field. My home history booklets have been commissioned as housewarming, Christmas and even surprise birthday presents. They get used, even requested, by the architects and other experts who get hired to create the Statements of Significance which are now necessary for a house to receive heritage designation in Vancouver.

I am very grateful for the media coverage my house history research has received. My work has been featured in both local and international media,from the Vancouver Courier to the North Shore News, The Globe and Mail - even CNN Money. I often get asked to give talks in different groups. You will find all the news and notes on my speaking engagements on the In The News page on this site.

My inventory of close to 500 addresses researched so far ranges from Shaughnessy mansions to pioneer cabins and worker row houses in Vancouver's old East End. Some years back I was hired to research the history of the lane house behind Umberto's Restaurant at 1380 Hornby Street. This house was saved from demolition and moved to Mole Hill. Around the same time, I was hired to research the history of another old house facing demolition, The Thomas Clark House which was built on the 200 block of East 5th in 1888. The Clark House was dismantled and moved to its present site behind the Macaulay House at 130 West 10th Avenue.

Working as a house genealogist is like being on a treasure hunt. You never know what you are going to turn up. The old house I was working on at 909 Richards--unfortunately destined for demolition--turned out to be built by Andrew Edward Lees, lumberman, early Vancouver men's clothier, and Vancouver Parks Board Commissioner after whom Lees Trail was named. The first resident of the house I researched at 3637 Pine Crescent, William Carey Ditmars, built many of Vancouver's early bridges and was responsible for bringing the first horseless carriage to the city.

A friend's house I was researching at 630 Princess Avenue was first home to New Brunswick-born lumberman James Archibald McNair, the "Shingle King of North America," so called because his Hastings Shingle Manufacturing Company was the largest shingle mill in the world. A house I can see outside my home office window, 827 East Georgia, was home to Nora Hendrix from 1938 to 1952. Nora was of course the grandmother of rock guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, who often visited Nora there. Two houses just across the street from me, 716 Hawks in the 1930s and 40s, and then 712 Hawks Avenue in 1949, was home to Felix Di Palma, who as Phil Palmer was an international boxing legend whose career took him all the way to Madison Square Gardens.

One of my favourite discoveries though was finding out that the seemingly uninteresting Lyman Tube & Supplies Representative who lived in the grey stuccoed house at 1550 Harwood, Robert M. Blair, was actually a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Seaforth Highlanders and was the British Empire's most celebrated small arms expert and marksman. In 1929, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Mills Blair became the toast of Canada when he took the King's Prize and the Grand Aggregate awards at the British Empire rifle matches at the Bizley Rifle Range. That was the first time that any contestant had won both the King's Prize and the Grand Aggregate. Blair was the first commanding officer of a regiment to win either prize. King George V hosted a reception to celebrate his victory at Buckingham Palace. The King congratulated him and presented him with an autographed photograph. 'Bull's-Eye Blair' was feted across Canada on his way back to Vancouver where a huge civic and military celebration awaited him. There are literally dozens of pictures of him and his victory parade down Georgia Street in the city of Vancouver Archives. The old Blair Rifle Range on the North Shore was named after him.

Of course, it's fun finding out that famous people have lived in your house, but truth be told, I am just as excited about the stories of the people who didn't make it in the newspapers: the BC Sugar Refinery workers and the loggers, the longshoremen, fishermen, and the BC Electric Railway conductors who lived in the row houses and company-built pattern houses erected in my neighbourhood. Their stories are just as compelling. Bottom line, like my house history researcher colleague in Toronto, Dana King says, "every house has a story..."

With every new project I learn more, so over the past years I have fine-tuned, not only my research methods, but also how I put together and present the data I glean from all the different resource materials I use.

With close to 500 buildings researched so far, I am more than ready to put the skills I have learned over the past years to work for you. Let me help you change your house's mysteries to history. Why dabble when you can hire a dedicated professional who has the knowledge, skills, passion and dedication to do the job your old house deserves. Call to view samples of my past work or to book an appointment. I am happy to provide references.


	When I was very young I was fascinated with history. I wanted to be an archaeologist. During my elementary school years in Kamloops and Richmond, British Columbia my avid interest in ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman history earned me the nickname of "James, the Ancient."
As I grew up, my dream of working in archaeology fell by the wayside but my love of history never left me. In high school I developed a new love, a passion for languages. I studied French and Spanish and later Japanese and Mandarin at University. (Now I am learning Italian). In 1980 I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a BA in Asian Studies. I spent a total of two and a half years in Japan studying at the University of Okayama. There I researched, among other things, the development of medieval Japanese Castle Towns using original 16th and 17th century brush-written documents called Komonjo and maps called Ezu. For the past twenty-five years I have put my knowledge of spoken and written Japanese to work in the travel industry where I worked as a Japanese language tour guide, escort, and interpreter all across Canada. I have escorted tours from Canada to Japan as well. In 1995 I moved from the West End into a heritage house on Odlum Drive in Vancouver's Grandview-Woodland area. I fell in love with the house and the neighbourhood and spent many hours researching the history of the previous occupants and owners of my home. I learned a lot about my house and its occupants, but I wanted more. I wanted a context for the information, so I expanded my research to include the history of all the homes on my side of the street, then the other side of the street, then finally, the entire block. I repeated this whole process when I moved into a row house in the 700 block of Hawks Avenue in Strathcona. When my friends and neighbours saw how far I had gone in my research and the detailed information I had been able to produce, they told me I should do this as a business. What a great idea, I thought. It's not exactly archaeology but it is still uncovering history - the history of home and neighbourhood. I have wanted to work at something different for a while. Home History Research not only satisfies my curiosity about Vancouver's past, it allows me to use the language, organizational and other research skills I have acquired over the years to help people have a deeper, more intimate and meaningful connection with their home and neighbourhood. In one week I can usually dig up as much information that it would often take homeowners years, even decades, to uncover. Over the past seven years I have researched the history close to 500 houses, commercial buildings, and even a hotel in virtually every Vancouver neighborhood, as well as over a dozen in New Westminster. My clients include proud, history-curious homeowners, as well as house builders, restorers and renovators, and even realtors specialising in the heritage home field. My home history booklets have been commissioned as housewarming, Christmas and even surprise birthday presents. They get used, even requested, by the architects and other experts who get hired to create the Statements of Significance which are now necessary for a house to receive heritage designation in Vancouver. I am very grateful for the media coverage my house history research has received. My work has been featured in both local and international media,from the Vancouver Courier to the North Shore News, The Globe and Mail - even CNN Money. I often get asked to give talks in different groups. You will find all the news and notes on my speaking engagements on the In The News page on this site. My inventory of close to 500 addresses researched so far ranges from Shaughnessy mansions to pioneer cabins and worker row houses in Vancouver's old East End. Some years back I was hired to research the history of the lane house behind Umberto's Restaurant at 1380 Hornby Street. This house was saved from demolition and moved to Mole Hill. Around the same time, I was hired to research the history of another old house facing demolition, The Thomas Clark House which was built on the 200 block of East 5th in 1888. The Clark House was dismantled and moved to its present site behind the Macaulay House at 130 West 10th Avenue. Working as a house genealogist is like being on a treasure hunt. You never know what you are going to turn up. The old house I was working on at 909 Richards--unfortunately destined for demolition--turned out to be built by Andrew Edward Lees, lumberman, early Vancouver men's clothier, and Vancouver Parks Board Commissioner after whom Lees Trail was named. The first resident of the house I researched at 3637 Pine Crescent, William Carey Ditmars, built many of Vancouver's early bridges and was responsible for bringing the first horseless carriage to the city. A friend's house I was researching at 630 Princess Avenue was first home to New Brunswick-born lumberman James Archibald McNair, the "Shingle King of North America," so called because his Hastings Shingle Manufacturing Company was the largest shingle mill in the world. A house I can see outside my home office window, 827 East Georgia, was home to Nora Hendrix from 1938 to 1952. Nora was of course the grandmother of rock guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, who often visited Nora there. Two houses just across the street from me, 716 Hawks in the 1930s and 40s, and then 712 Hawks Avenue in 1949, was home to Felix Di Palma, who as Phil Palmer was an international boxing legend whose career took him all the way to Madison Square Gardens. One of my favourite discoveries though was finding out that the seemingly uninteresting Lyman Tube & Supplies Representative who lived in the grey stuccoed house at 1550 Harwood, Robert M. Blair, was actually a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Seaforth Highlanders and was the British Empire's most celebrated small arms expert and marksman. In 1929, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Mills Blair became the toast of Canada when he took the King's Prize and the Grand Aggregate awards at the British Empire rifle matches at the Bizley Rifle Range. That was the first time that any contestant had won both the King's Prize and the Grand Aggregate. Blair was the first commanding officer of a regiment to win either prize. King George V hosted a reception to celebrate his victory at Buckingham Palace. The King congratulated him and presented him with an autographed photograph. 'Bull's-Eye Blair' was feted across Canada on his way back to Vancouver where a huge civic and military celebration awaited him. There are literally dozens of pictures of him and his victory parade down Georgia Street in the city of Vancouver Archives. The old Blair Rifle Range on the North Shore was named after him. Of course, it's fun finding out that famous people have lived in your house, but truth be told, I am just as excited about the stories of the people who didn't make it in the newspapers: the BC Sugar Refinery workers and the loggers, the longshoremen, fishermen, and the BC Electric Railway conductors who lived in the row houses and company-built pattern houses erected in my neighbourhood. Their stories are just as compelling. Bottom line, like my house history researcher colleague in Toronto, Dana King says, "every house has a story..." With every new project I learn more, so over the past years I have fine-tuned, not only my research methods, but also how I put together and present the data I glean from all the different resource materials I use. With close to 500 buildings researched so far, I am more than ready to put the skills I have learned over the past years to work for you. Let me help you change your house's mysteries to history. Why dabble when you can hire a dedicated professional who has the knowledge, skills, passion and dedication to do the job your old house deserves. Call to view samples of my past work or to book an appointment. I am happy to provide references.