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Tax Records, A Treasure Chest of Facts About Your Ancestors
By Kathy Jones-Kristof | March 22, 2008
Personal Property Taxes are a great place to find facts about your ancestors and to track their lives through the years. They’re just as useful as the Federal Census, plus taxes are collected every year instead of only every ten years. And they go back a lot further. The Federal Census began in 1790 while taxes were usually collected as soon as a county was formed. See my post on Courthouse Records, A Vital Step in Researching Your Family History on Feb 3 2008 to learn how to find county Tax Records.
Here’s a sample of things you might learn from Personal Property Tax Records:
· When a man comes of age, which would be the first year he starts paying tax. This is usually age 16, although some taxes weren’t collected until a man reached age 21. Check the column heading or the first page of the Tax Record to see what age the tax covers.
· The names of a man’s sons as they come of age.
· The name of a man’s father. You could learn this not only from the listing of the man’s name along with his son’s, but I’ve also seen listings where a tax collector, to differentiate between two men in the county named John Jones, noted: John Jones, son of Thomas.
· The section of the county a man lives, and sometimes the exact place.
· If a man was considered wealthy based on how much livestock and land he owned.
· If a man owned slaves. In some counties the slaves’ names will even be listed.
· The year of a man’s death can be ascertained when he is dropped from the list and his estate is listed or his widow appears, which then supplies you with her name. However, a widow doesn’t always start paying tax the year her husband dies. She may be living with one of her children. If a man disappears from a Tax List and his widow doesn’t appear, don’t assume that he’s dead or has moved to another county. Check the next few years to see if he reappears.
· Occasionally in Virginia, all household furnishings were taxed. When this happened, we get to look behind the closed doors of our ancestors’ homes. What kind of metal was their pocket watch made of? Did they own a mirror? Were their candlesticks pewter or silver? What kind of wood was their bedroom bureau made of? These occasions are a genealogist’s dream come true.
· Tax Lists can be used as a substitute for the Federal Census for the years it was destroyed by fire.
Although there are a few transcribed Tax Records online, most of my data comes from microfilmed Courthouse Records ordered from local libraries or the Latter Day Saints library. I prefer seeing the actual list recorded by the tax collector. Below is a section of the Personal Property Tax Record for Alleghany Co, VA from 1845.
What taxes are collected variety by year, county and state. This one has Persons Chargeable With The Tax listed in rough alphabetical order—by the first letter of the last name but not alphabetized by the entire last name. The tax columns, from the left, are for Free White Males over 16 - Slaves Above 16 - Free White Males over 21 - Male Free Negroes Between the Years of 21 and 55 Years - Slaves Who Have Attained the Age of 12 Years and Upwards - Number of Horses - Their Worth - Number of Cattle - Their Worth. There are more columns to the right (not shown) for various types of carriages. All of these column headings were very hard to read even on the microfilmed copy of the actual document. I recommend having a magnifying glass available when doing research on all old documents.
The thing that I find most valuable on this Tax List is that the tax collector included the first initial of the men’s middle names. This is a wonderful aid to a genealogist. If there are two men in the same county or state with the same name, especially if they’re related as in father and son or grandson, it can be a nightmare to distinguish which is which in any document you find. A middle initial can be a lifesaver. Another great aid can be a nickname. Many men became so well known by a middle name or nickname that their first name was never used; even in Tax Lists, legal documents or the Federal Census. Always note in your Family File all middle initials, middle names and nicknames that might help you recognize your ancestor in old records.
If I were tracing the surname Mann, I would extract from this Tax List the information for everyone named Mann, even if I knew that only Archibald Mann was my ancestor. Even if I don’t know who the other Manns are, I may discover later that they’re important to my Family Tree and I’ll already have their information on file. Sometimes a brother, cousin or uncle may be the only person in the family whose documents have survived and I can use him to trace my family back another generation.
Personal Property Tax Files aren’t the only kind of Taxes to look for; there are also Land Taxes and Military Taxes. Both of these have stories to tell about your ancestor, too. Land Taxes will give you not only how many acres of land your ancestor owned and where it was located, but sometimes when it was purchased and from whom—making it easier to find a deed in courthouse records. Military Taxes were collected by local Militia Companies as a substitute for Property Taxes, plus they may provide you with valuable information on your ancestor’s military service.
In addition to adding individual facts I find on Tax Lists about my ancestors into my Family File, I also enter all the information I’ve collected into a database program. The one I use is Excel. The database program allows me to not only keep track of the information collected, but also to sort the records however I want, such as being able to see how many years a man lived in a particular county. This information can also be extracted and added to family history reports.
Taxes are a conundrum. Without them we wouldn’t have roads or libraries, both of which I find invaluable. Still I complain when I have to pay my taxes. But I celebrate when I look at Tax Records from another century and find one of my ancestors, who probably complained when he had to pay tax on the horse he rode into town on. That’s life, however. It’s all fun until you have to pay the check. Until next time, start looking for your ancestors’ Tax Records and see what secrets you discover.
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Topics: All Levels of Genealogists |