Daily AncestorFollow a name through the tax lists
Pick one early ancestor and copy every tax list entry for him or her in one district, year after year, into a single table.
The census came every ten years, but the tax collector came every year. A run of tax lists can show when a son came of age, when land changed hands and roughly when someone died or moved.
Your steps this week
- Find out which taxes the state and county collected in those years, and what ages and property were taxable.
- Look for the lists at the state archives, the county office or digitized tax books on FamilySearch.
- Copy every entry for the surname in the same district for each year available, with polls, acres and value.
- Mark the year each person first appears and the year each one disappears.
- Where land passes to someone with the same surname, look for a will, an estate or a deed.