Censuses and Tax Lists

Most U.S. census records have been indexed and are searchable online. There are a few exceptions, of course, and besides, it is sometimes helpful to see a full page of entries wherein “clusters” of people with common heritage show up. Census records are critical for placing ancestors in a particular place at a particular time in the past.  Where census records do not survive the passage of time, tax records are one of our most important substitutes. If the census record you want does not exist—because it was destroyed in a fire or flood or was never administered for the year you need—tax records can fill the bill. Tax records can also embellish existing census records because oftentimes states and municipalities collected taxes for the years in between censuses. Additionally, like censuses, tax records can support “cluster research” since original tax records are often recorded according to the location of properties within a given jurisdiction.

Following are seventeen 17 terrific censuses, tax record collections, or inventories from our large collection of these records. The titles in play touch on Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, as well as military pensioners and more. You might just find your elusive ancestor in one of them.  If not, be sure to conduct a topical search on our web to learn what other places and time periods are covered.

• The Beginner’s Guide to Using Tax Lists
• Republic of Texas Poll Lists for 1846
• American Population Before the Federal Census of 1790
• State Census Records
• Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920
• Early Ohio Tax Records. Reprinted with “The Index to Early Ohio Tax Records”
• 1770-1790 Settlement of the Cumberland [TN]
• The 1850 Census of Georgia Slave Owners
• Natchitoches Colonials: A Source Book
• The Census Tables for the French Colony of Louisiana from 1699 Through 1732
• “First Census” of Kentucky, 1790
• The Reconstructed 1790 Census of Georgia
• The Rhode Island 1777 Military Census
• A Census of Pensioners
• Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Pennsylvania
• New York in 1698
• New York State Censuses & Substitutes