THE TAX MAN COMETH

by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G.

Most Americans know what April 15 is: Tax Day. We groan and complain about taxes just as our ancestors did.

Like all records generated by or about our ancestors, tax records can be used to identify, trace, and learn about those from whom we descend. Tax lists, however unglamorous, are one of the most valuable but neglected sources of genealogical and historical information.

"Tax lists'' is a catchall term used to describe personal property tax lists, tithables, poll lists, land-tax lists, and rent rolls. Your ancestors might have evaded the census takers and never owned any land, but their names probably appear somewhere on tax lists. Colonial and antebellum counties and towns usually taxed free adult males a set, uniform amount called the poll (head) tax, which became due when a young man reached 21 -- 16 or 18 in some areas -- and ceased when he reached 50 or 60.

Because the law sometimes made the father liable for a poll tax on sons aged 16 to 20, researchers can search a series of annual tax lists to learn when these sons came of age.

Poll tax ages changed and varied in localities, making it important to know the law of the locality and the time period. For example, in some areas during the colonial years, the white male poll began at age 16, but at about the time of the Revolutionary War it was changed to 21.

Poll tax lists can be combined with property tax lists and can serve as a substitute census. In areas where the early tax lists have survived, these records can be used to identify men with common or identical names and reveal when they entered and left the county. Some county clerks did the identification of our ancestors for us, by adding useful data such as where they lived, their occupation or a physical description.

Tax lists basically consist of the heads of households, males age 16 (or whatever the prescribed age was), slaves (male and female), cattle, horses, other types of personal property, and land taxes. Sometimes land and personal property tax lists are combined. Women appear on some tax lists if they owned land or taxable personal property, or had taxable males under 21 in their households.

Early land-tax lists generally show the acreage, the assessed valuation, and the amount of tax. In some years they show the distance from the courthouse or the name of the nearest watercourse -- both helpful in locating where your ancestors resided. Some lists include business licenses issued during the year.

Tax lists, like all others used by genealogists, must be checked for every possible variant spelling of surnames. If you insist that your ancestors always spelled their name Robinson, you are going to miss them on a tax list if they appear as Roberson, Robeson, or Robertson.

Most of the surviving early county tax records, as well as quitrents, tithables, and poll taxes, have been microfilmed and can be accessed through the Family History Library system. In addition to county and town clerks' offices, some tax records may also be found at state historical societies and the National Archives.

(c) 1998, Los Angeles Times Syndicate