I need help finding the history of an old house I've seen things in before.

I'm trying to find a way to look up the history of my grandmother's house in Shreveport, LA (Caddo Parish). She left this world last March and one of her last wishes to my mom was that mom sell the house. Her house is in one of the last good areas of Shreveport, sits just outside of city limits, and has a cottage on the property as well. Several family members have seen someone or something every decade since the 60's. To give a quick detail of each, my mom and her friend were allowed to stay in the cottage one night when they were teens (late 60's). They both felt something and looked towards the master bedroom as a bluish, transparent hand grabbed the door from inside the bedroom and slammed it shut. They were the only ones there as her parents were at a military party.

1970's. My grandmother and her neighbor were standing at the side of the cottage and both watched as a white orb "pinballed" from one side of the yard to the other, starting towards the back where she kept the horses. It got to the spot where an old Chinaberry tree used to be, but had been replaced by a Willow tree my grandfather planted before he passed in the early 70's.

1980's. My family lived in the cottage from 1980 to 1982 when my grandmother, who lived in the bigger house alone, decided she'd be better off in the smaller house since there was mom, dad, my sister and myself. While we were living there, my mom would lay me down in the room in the back for a nap, I was around 1 and a half. I vividly remember a little boy who would sit perched up in the corner of that room and do things that made me laugh. When he'd hold his finger over his mouth and say "shhh" I'd close my eyes. It wouldn't be but a few seconds and my mom would be in there checking on me.

1990's. My grandmother opened the front door to let her dog out and recalled the scene outside silent. No noise from the cars on East 70th St, no neighbors doing anything noisy, just silence. The way she told it, she heard drums beating and Indians chanting. She said the sound drew her in so she walked out and followed the noise, it led her directly to that same Willow tree. As she told it, the closer she got, the louder the music and the chants got until she stepped under the Willow tree. The instant she stepped under it, the music and the chanting stopped and she could hear all of the usual familiar sounds of cars, neighbors, etc.

2006. This time the main house, and I was 27. My grandmother wasn't feeling very good so I stayed two weeks with her. As every grandmother from that generation, she put me to work cleaning up outside and clearing things out. This included trimming the hedges that sat alongside the huge windows of the house. Later that evening as I laid there in the bed in the back bedroom with her dog at my feet, I heard scratching on the screen of one of the big windows in the den, the dog heard it, too. The thought of wind blowing the hedges crossed my mind for a second until I remembered I'd trimmed them all much lower than the windows. I walked into that room and heard the scratching on the screen of the bedroom window. Once again, the dog heard it, too. I walked into the bedroom and then the scratching came from the den again. This happened a couple more times. There was a bathroom between the rooms that you had to walk through to get from one to the other. When I heard the scratching in the den again, instead of walking into the den, I got to the bathroom (between both rooms) and stopped. I heard the scratching on the den window again. I walked back into the bedroom, turned the tv on, and went to sleep.

2013. One of the last Christmas parties we had there because my grandmother had gotten into her late 80's and she couldn't stay there by herself anymore. My nephew, 13 at the time, went outside to get something of the truck for his mom who had parked around back. With the truck door open and digging for whatever it was he was looking for, he felt a crisp wind across his neck. When he turned around, he the same exact white orb that my grandmother and her neighbor had seen nearly 40 years earlier, and to hear him explain it, the orb followed the same exact path and stopped at the same exact spot. When he told us all about it a couple of years ago, his mom asked why he never told us then and he said, "Who would believe a 13 year old kid that said he just saw a white orb dash across the back yard?"


If you've gotten this far, thanks for continuing to hear me out. What I'd like to find out is if there was something there before her house was built (I know they had to reroute the Caddo River and found old Native American canoes and other things there in 1910's or 1920's when the house was built, but I'd also like to find out if anyone else, besides my grandfather, died in one of those houses prior to my grandparents buying it in the 60's...

Can anyone help me out?

a reply to: LSU2018

Old maps.
Some have older homesteads on them.
Ask on local FB or nextdoor groups, or historical society.

louisiana.msghn.org...

a reply to: LSU2018

Is it possible that local government or library has a copy of the property deed?

Found this interesting:

HistoryEdit

In 1838, Caddo Parish was created by territory taken from Natchitoches Parish; the legislature named it for the indigenous Caddo Indians who had lived in the area. Most were forced out during Indian Removal in the 1830s.

The parish was initially a center of cotton plantations, developed by planters along the waterways and worked by thousands of enslaved African-American laborers. Shreveport, the parish seat, became a center of government, trade and law.

An armory was constructed in Shreveport before the Civil War. This city served as the state capital after Union forces had seized Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Locals have referred to the armory as "Fort Humbug".

After the Civil War, and particularly after Reconstruction, whites in the parish used violence and intimidation against blacks to suppress Republican voting and re-establish white supremacy. The parishes in northwest Louisiana had a high rate of violence and lynchings. From 1877 through the early 20th century, there were 48 lynchings of African Americans in Caddo Parish
.....

en.m.wikipedia.org...

That's a prescription for hauntings😥

a reply to: Bigburgh

Yeah these are all poltergeist like in nature. My grandmother always swore that's what it was because of the house/neighborhood being built on burial grounds. She'd told my mom that way before Hollywood made a movie about it. I see that dems haven't changed a bit.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Error 404, just my luck. Can something like that be obtained from the courthouse?

a reply to: LSU2018

City Hall.
Property records.

a reply to: LSU2018

Get a title search done by a local title company.

They will trace it back to when it was originality deeded.

When I got mine done, I traced my property back to when it was originally deeded to the state by Calvin Coolidge.

That at least will give you names to start researching.

originally posted by: LSU2018
a reply to: JAGStorm

Error 404, just my luck. Can something like that be obtained from the courthouse?

Reach out to your historical society, they will have tons more info.
Where I live the old families have so much more knowledge on the history than the city hall/courthouse.