The following is a review of The Genealogist’s Guide to Tax Records, by Carol Cook Darrow, CD, and Susan Winchester, Ph.d., C.P.A.
I’ve been lecturing on using tax records for years, and up until just a short time ago, lamented the fact that there was no in-depth book that I could recommend to my audiences. That all changed when Carol Cooke Darrow, CG, and Susan Winchester, Ph.d., C.P.A. wrote The Genealogist’s Guide to Researching Tax Records.
The census taker came every ten years and often missed people. The tax collector came every year and seldom missed anyone. The Genealogist’s Guide to Researching Tax Records gives us the techniques to locate, read, and understand the valuable information in these annual records.
Researching tax records, which date from the 1620s to the present day, can help you establish your ancestor’s location, real estate, personal possessions, economic status and perhaps even the occupations and family relationships of your ancestors. By reading this volume, you can learn how to find tax records, how to read these records and understand the information they provide.
Chapters one and two (See Table of Contents below) explain techniques that will help you successfully research tax records. Subsequent chapters explain how to apply those techniques in researching head, tithable or poll taxes, real estate taxes, personal property taxes, federal taxes, inheritance taxes, and a variety of miscellaneous taxes.
Tax records are especially helpful for the period prior the first U.S. Federal decennial census in 1790 and for the period between 1880 and 1900, with its missing 1890 census.
This is the most complete guide to researching tax records in print and includes examples from New England, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona, and more. Beside that, the appendices, bibliographies, and a subject index add to the value of this work. Following is a listing of the Table of Contents.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Getting Started in Tax Records
- Benefits of Tax Record Research
- Research Can Be Tedious – Until You Succeed
- Tax Process
- Locating Tax Records
- Research Tax Records at Courthouse or Archive
- Tax Records as Substitutes for Census Records
- Verify County Formation Date
- Following the Records Year by Year
- Isolated Records
- Indexes: Never the Final Answer
- A Word About Slaves
- Finding the Right Record in the Wrong Place
- Ready to Begin?
Chapter 2. Research Techniques
- Types of Taxes
- How to Approach a Tax Record
- Identify Information Being Collected
- Sources for Interpreting Tax Information
- Consider Spelling Variations
- Become Familiar With Notations and Abbreviations
Research Example: Separate Men with the Same Name in the Same County - Doing the Math
Research Example: Estimate Wealth of an Ancestor - Records That Report Only Assessed Value
- Paying Taxes in the Coin of the Realm
- Calculating With Pounds, Shilling, and Pence
Research Example: Estimate Wealth of an Ancestor - Forming a Hypothesis
- Summary of Research Techniques
Chapter 3. Poll Taxes
- Taxes “By the Poll” Were the Earliest American Taxes
- Massachusetts Poll Tax, 1646
- Virginia Tithables
- The Tithable Process
- Poll Books and Voting Rights
Research Example: Locate an Ancestor in a Specific County - Head Taxes in Other Colonies
Research Example: Separate Men with the Same Name in the Same County - Tracking Changes Through Tax Lists Over Time
Research Example: Identify Men as They Become Adults - Finding the Landless Ancestor
Research Example: Research Landless Ancestor - Poll Taxes Can Replace the Census
Chapter 4. Land Taxes
- Colonial Land Distribution
- Land Taxes After the Revolution
- Tax Exemptions Used to Encourage Settlement
- Tax Records Can Identify the Land and the Location
Research Example: Separate Men With the Same Name in the Same County
Research Example: Use Tax Information to Lead to Other Valuable Records - Delinquent Land Tax Sales
- Tracking Delinquent Land Tax Sales Records
- Land Tax Records Can Point to a Migration Trail
- Land Holding May Imply Arrival Date
- Tax Ledgers Arranged by Legal Land Description
- Additional Information Collected in Tax Records
- Information Common to Land Tax Records
Chapter 5. Personal Property Taxes
- Paying for Government
- Estates are Taxable
Research Example: Establish a Year of Death as Estate Becomes Taxable - Land and Personal Property Tax Lists Combined
Research Example: Examine Wealth of an Ancestor - Property Tax Lists Expanded Over Time
- State Income Tax Replaces Some Personal Property Taxes
- Homestead Exemptions Enacted
- Personal Property Tax – “Everyman Tax”
Chapter 6: Federal Taxes
- Direct Tax of 1798
- Tariff and Import Taxes
- Direct Taxes of 1813, 1815, and 1816
- Direct Tax of 1861
- Federal Income Taxes (1862-1872)
- Confederate Taxes
- Tariffs Decline in Significance
- Income Tax Reconsidered
- Tax Protests
- Tax Assessors and Collectors
Chapter 7. Inheritance and Estate Taxes
- Federal Estate and In Heritage Taxes
- State Estate and Inheritance Taxes
Research Example: Identify the Heirs of an Estate - Estate and Inheritance Taxes Can Prove Relationships
Chapter 8. Miscellaneous Tax Records
- Militia Service
- Road Orders
- Ecclesiastical Taxes
- Faculty Taxes
- Business Licenses
- Liquor Taxes
- School Taxes
- Federal Head Tax on Aliens
- Old Age Assistance Tax
Chapter 9. Summary
- Summary of Research Techniques
Appendix A. Textural Records of the Direct Tax Commission in the Southern States
Appendix B. Microfilmed Records of the Internal Revenue Assessment Lists, 1862-1874
Appendix C. State Inheritance Tax Laws Through 1913
Appendix D. State Old Age Assistance Laws, as of 1934
Glossary
Research Bibliography
Bibliography of Selected Tax Records
Index
To order your copy, click on the following link: The Genealogist’s Guide to Researching Tax Records; by Carol Cook Darrow, CG and Susan Winchester, Ph.D., CPA.; 2007, 5½x8½, paper, index, 182 pp. FRPC Item # HBD4298.
