Who haunts my house?
Kawartha Lakes Public Library — This is such a popular question at the Library that we have prepared a file of newspaper articles of reportedly haunted houses. Unfortunately this means if your house has not been featured in the news for being haunted, then we might not have any information about it. But, like any teenager being chased by a madman holding a chain saw, don’t give up! We have resources that can help you learn more about who lived— and died— in your home.
Step 1
Compile a list of all people who lived in the house. You might have a list of owners from a title search. If not, we can help you check past voters lists to see who was registered as living in the house. Next, cross-reference this with census data to get a list of other family members and occupants, including children, tenants, and servants.
Step 2
Check each person’s record of death. You can find a number of death records on Ancestry.com at the Library. Unfortunately, only death records up to 1947 are available, but we might be able to find a death notice or obituary for more recent dates if they were posted in the newspaper. Cemetery transcriptions are also valuable resources for finding dates of death.
Step 3
Search the news. Use the names and death dates you’ve found to look for murders and mysterious deaths in the news that might explain the haunting. We have special search engines for newspapers, journals and magazines. We also have local newspapers on microfilm and in our digital archive.
Step 4
Check with neighbours to see if they’ve heard any stories about the former occupants of your home. This might give you a narrower list of dates and names that we can use to find a news story or death record to substantiate the neighbour’s tale.
What you do with this information is up to you, but if you’re looking to find out how to conduct a séance, use a Ouija board or evict a poltergeist, we probably have a few books that might help.
Local Haunted Buildings
Ask about our file of information on these haunted locations.
- Academy Theatre—2 Lindsay Street North, Lindsay
- 33 Cambridge Street South, Lindsay
- The Doctor’s House, 45 Cambridge Street North, Lindsay
- “The Post” 15 William Street North, Lindsay
- Olde Gaol Museum— 50 Victoria Avenue North, Lindsay
- The Sir William Makenzie Inn— 1011 Portage Road, Kirkfield
*Courtesy of the Kawartha Lakes Public Library
