It's once again that time of the year when the wildflowers are blooming, students are getting ready for spring break and the approaching deadline to pay your federal income taxes nears. Just as we dread that looming deadline, so too did our ancestors. The good thing for us is that with taxes comes paperwork that can assist you in researching your ancestors. While these lists aren't going to provide you with a lot of detailed information, it will place your ancestor in a certain place in time, thus making it easier to find other documents.
To learn more about the history of American taxation, check out the Tax History Project, http://www.taxhistory.org/. This web site includes a virtual museum of tax history covering the years 1660 to present day. Besides tax history you can also peruse the tax returns of the current President and Vice-President of the United States as well as some previous Presidents.
If you are curious about where your tax dollars go, see the graph at http://www.thebudgetgraph.com/ . This provides a visual representation of where our tax dollars are spent by the federal government.
In general, when looking for tax lists consult the Family History Library catalog at www.familysearch.org, the state library or archive, U. S. Genweb, www.usgenweb.com, county sites and other large genealogical databases. The web site Census Finder at http://www.censusfinder.com/, is not only an index of free web sites that include the U. S. Federal census but also sites that feature other types of name lists including tax lists.
The following is a "partial" list of the tax records you can find on the Internet.
Arkansas
1836, 1840-1847, 1885, 1887, 1889, 1907, 1911, 1926 Saline County http://www.rootsweb.com/~arsaline/taxes.html
Colorado
1913-1942 Logan County http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/inh_tax/logan/
1920-1943 Moffat County http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/inh_tax/1moffat_inh_tax.htm
Illinois
1891 Williamson County http://www.thewchs.com/archives/wchs_sourthn.htm
Iowa
1847-1850 Louisa County Louisa County Tax List
Kentucky
1799 Henderson County http://members.aol.com/patander73/h1799tax.html
1823 Lawrence County http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~churn/taxlist.html
Maryland
1798-1808 Baltimore Tax Index, www.ancestry.com
Minnesota
1905 Clay County 1815 Taxables - Cumberland County, NC
New York
1800 Erie County http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyerie/buffalo/tax1800.htm
1818 Essex County The Assessors Roll Of Crown Point - 1818
1835 Essex County The Assessor's Roll Of Crown Point - 1835
1872 Essex County The Assessors Roll Of Crown Point - 1872
North Carolina
1759 Rowan County http://www.fmoran.com/1759.html
1780 Montgomery County 1780 Montgomery County Tax List
1779 Montgomery County List Of Montgomery County Tax Payers In 1779
1786 Surry County http://www.fmoran.com/1786.html and http://www.fmoran.com/1786a.html
1815 Cumberland County 1815 Taxables - Cumberland County, NC
Various years, Perquimans County Tax Lists Of Perquimans County, North Carolina
Ohio
1811-1816 Belmont County http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~saharmon/
Pennsylvania
1734 Philadelphia County http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/berks/taxlist/tax1734.txt
1753 Lancaster County http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/berks/taxlist/1753heid.txt
Tennessee
1787-1872 Sumner County Sumner County Tax Records And Other Lists
Texas
1839 Houston http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tx/harris/taxlists/taxlist.txt
Virginia
1780 New Kent County New Kent Co. Land Tax - 1782
1798 City of Fredericksburg http://departments.umw.edu/hipr/www/Fredericksburg/pptax/fburgpp1798.htm
1813 City of Fredericksburg http://departments.umw.edu/hipr/www/Fredericksburg/pptax/fburgpp1813.htm
1815 City of Fredericksburg http://departments.umw.edu/hipr/www/Fredericksburg/pptax/fburgpp1815.htm
West Virginia
1802-1822 Wood County Tax Lists http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvwood/taxlists.htm
1840 Kanawha County http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvkanawh/Tax/index.html