Researching with Tax Records

So everybody loves to hate the taxman but what can tax records give to us genealogists?  Depending on the specific record they can place a family in a particularly location, substitute for a missing census record, often provide relationships, provide approximate ages and death dates, and fill details about family wealth and status.

Federal Direct Taxes

The US congress levied a direct tax in its citizens in 1795 in an effort to pay off the Revolutionary War debt.  These taxes were levied on real estate and slaves.  Records created by the 1798 levies are available for the original 13 states, but many records are missing or were lost.

Head Taxes

Head taxes, or poll taxes, were levied on men aged 21 or above (in some states the starting age was 16) and continued to be due until the age of 50 or 60.  The ages were often changed over the years as demands for funds changed.  Records usually list every person who paid the tax and thus can be used to trace the location of any person from the time they started paying the tax until they either moved away, or died, or reached the age limit.  Men with common names were often listed as “son of”, and sometimes as “Jr.” but this may not indicate a family relationship.

Real Estate Taxes

The most common tax and tax record available is for real estate taxes.  Access to records varies from state to state, where typically the oldest records may be found at a state archives or at a state historical society.  Records from about 1970 may now be found on the Internet.  The primary information of interest to genealogists is that of placing a family at a specific location, but also we can glean information about the type of property, quality of the land, and other interesting tidbits.

Civil War Tax Lists

Civil War taxes were in the form of Internal Revenue Assessments and were used to help pay for the war effort.  All states contributed including the newly restored southern states.  The taxes were levied on income, property, and through license fees.  Individuals with an income under $600 and/or with property under $600 in value were exempt from these taxes.  The records list the name of the payer, their postal address, the item being taxed, its value, and the amount of tax levied.  Records can be found at NARA and are now also on Ancestry.com

Poor Taxes

Poor taxes most often date back into colonial times, where each town or city would appoint a board or group to oversee the collection of taxes to help care for the town’s poorest citizens.  Records typically list the name of the payer and the amount levied.

Sources:

Meitzler, Leland, “The Tax Man Cometh: Tax Records in Genealogy”, Family Chronicle, Nov/Dec 2009, pgs 18-20.