Introduction to Red Book: Tax Records
This entry was originally written by Alice Eichholz, Ph.D., CG for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
Taxes serve a variety of purposes in genealogical research. Tax records can indicate age (or at least majority status), wealth, and presence in an area, even for those who were not landowners.
There are numerous examples of interesting tax lists and the information they convey. Few are published. Most exist in original form in a state or local repository. This section discusses availability of those tax records. See also:
Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, 'Research in Land and Tax Records,' in Szucs and Luebking, eds. The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, rev. ed. (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, Inc., 1997).