Tax Records

After the county was organized and for several years, the tax rates were fixed and the lists of taxables were ordered to be taken by the county court. The county courts were authorized to tax property by a legislative act passed October 25, 1797, in which the types of taxable property were listed and the method of taking the taxes was prescribed. White polls consisted of “all free males and male servants between the age of twenty one and fifty years”; slaves, “all slaves male and female, between the age of twelve and fifty years.” The amount of tax to […]

Tax records tend to be one of the least used resources available to genealogists and historical researchers. Tax records can be valuable in a number of ways: tax lists offer a better understanding of the status and wealth of people during a certain era of time; such records can help pinpoint when an ancestor lived in a certain community between the years U.S. censuses were taken; they can also be used to help determine when a person died; and land ownership questions are often answered through a search of tax records. In addition, tax data can offer beneficial historical insights