Using Tax Lists to Solve Genealogical Problems

Kentucky and Virginia have some of the most complete tax lists in the United States. Their value in research often goes unrecognized by even the experienced researcher. Tax lists can be a primary tool for solving difficult research problems and are invaluable when used with other records. Learn how to access original records, to best organize them for study, and to interpret their meaning. The lecture will use case studies to show their use in tracking individuals across time, estimating birth dates and death dates, separating individuals of the same name, determining the identity of other family members, and using them as substitutes for deeds, court records, and estate records in burned counties.

Tax rolls have traditionally been used as a “census substitute”—a list of names to show that someone of a certain name was in a certain jurisdiction, in this year or that. But tax rolls can be developed into so much more. This session demonstrates how to use tax rolls to separate same-name people, determine ages of men and date their marriages, establish times of death, identify parents and the maiden identity of wives, track migration, document inheritances when probate records are destroyed, and so much more!

Tax lists of all kinds, whether head taxes or taxes on real estate or personal property, are a rich source of data on families and individuals often recorded nowhere else.

Use USGS topographic maps, tract maps, plat maps, surveys, deeds, census records, and tax lists to reconstruct the neighborhood where your ancestor lived. Plat your ancestor’s land records and discover what unexpected clues might be discovered in the process.

The federal census gives us wonderful clues for our research, but the ten years between each census is a long time. This presentation will discuss records that can be used to fill in the gap and add more points to your ancestor's timeline.

This session will introduce a large variety of documents that may be located within the Estate files of individuals dying with or without a will. The records may provide researchers with direct or indirect evidence of heirs of the deceased, descriptions of property (both real and personal), occupation, literacy, and…

You've found the document, now put it through the wringer. Consider: genealogical standards, provenance, jurisdiction, possible biases, etc.

Do you find it difficult to determine what information you have found in reference to your ancestors is good or bad information? During this webinar you will be provided with suggestions that will help you sort out the evidence you are finding and how to carefully analyze the sources and...

New genealogical resources, eLearning tools, "how-to" discussions, and other items useful to the genealogist and family historian appear Online nearly every day. This webinar will provide some tips and tricks for staying current with data that is most important to you and your research. Some standards for using Online sources…