NEWBURYPORT — Most homeowners like to know a little something about the property they inhabit, but Skip and Marge Motes are elevating such curiosity to a new level.
They will be featured at a seminar on Saturday, Jan. 21, that will provide listeners with information that goes back centuries.
The event is titled "The Mystery of History: Researching and Documenting Your Old House," and it will be held at Mass Audubon's Joppa Flats Education Center at 1 Plum Island Turnpike.
The event is five hours long (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.), which suggests how much knowledge there is to impart.
Co-sponsoring the seminar will be the Newburyport Preservation Trust and Historic New England.
"Newburyport has a remarkable history, as most people know, and we've done research that provides detail to some individual houses and neighborhoods," Skip Motes said. "We're looking forward to sharing some of what we have learned."
The couple moved here in the mid-'90s after Skip Motes retired from IBM. Marge Motes was a homemaker and mother of three.
They had lived in numerous communities, including New York, Paris, Huntsville, Ala., (during a stint with the space program) and, finally, Stamford, Conn. They chose to settle in Newburyport in part because of its history, architecture and nearby museums.
Skip Motes became a leader of a committee attempting to organize the Newburyport Art Association, and his efforts and those of others helped the organization develop its own gallery and gift shop at 65 Water St.
Marge Motes, meanwhile, aligned herself with the Historical Society of Old Newbury based in the Cushing House Museum on High Street, and for more than a decade acted as a resource to residents who had questions about the city and its origins.
"A lot of newcomers would be interested in the history of the house they just bought," she said. "Mothers would bring their children and they'd learn about its past."
Marge Motes is among the region's leaders in her knowledge of the documents that make up a city's history, including deeds, vital records, probate transactions, fading photographs and aging maps.
The Moteses, in fact, are working on a book to be titled "Adventures: Water and Federal Street Entrepreneurs, Their Families and Communities of Maritime and Industrial Newburyport."
They say publication is still a few years off, but the ambitious title suggests it will bring much valuable information into the mainstream of local research.
On Jan. 21, the couple will be part of a multi-part seminar on strategies and techniques for discovering more about the history of one's house.
Specifically, the Moteses will discuss their extensive deed research of the south waterfront in Newburyport and explain the paths for people to follow to find answers of their own.
In other segments of the five-hour event, Linda Miller, vice president of the Newburyport Preservation Trust, will show how to measure, draw and photograph old buildings, while Joe Cornish and Caitlin Corkins of Historic New England will talk about methods of architectural investigation and how to engage in archeology.
Examples of research documents and archeological findings from private homes in Newburyport will also be on view.
"This presentation is universal in its scope, meaning that people from Newburyport or any other community would find it useful," Miller said.
"The Moteses know a great deal, and will be discussing some very interesting research," she added.
Tickets for the seminar are $20 for members of the Newburyport Preservation Trust and Historic New England, $25 for nonmembers. A box lunch will be available for an additional $10. Snow date is Feb. 4. Reservations can be made by calling 978-462-9079.
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