United States Tax Records for Genealogical Research

April 15 is typically tax day, and it has me thinking of how taxes relate to genealogical work. Tax records can help trace ancestors, especially those who relocated or lived in times or locations with lost census records. Tax records provide clues to other records, to the person's financial status, and the possibility of probate records. Tax records may also identify an occupation which could suggest the possibility of guild or other professional records. People may not like taxes, but tax records can be useful research tools.

Brief overview of US taxes

Income tax, as we know it in the United States, became permanent in 1913. The Office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, later renamed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), was created in 1862.1 The income tax established in 1862 was temporary and was created to “support the government and to pay interest on the public debt.”2

The first Federal Tax was in 1798 to raise money for the Federal Army.3 It was a direct tax (rather than an income tax) where citizens were taxed on things such as real estate, slaves, and land. Other taxes included those assessed for the War of 1812 (taxed in years 1814-1816) and the Civil War (taxed 1862-1872). Many, but not all, federal tax records have survived. States were often responsible for collecting these taxes and passing the revenue to the Federal Government.4

In addition to federal taxes, states and cities sometimes assessed their own taxes. These records may exist at the county or state level or even in local town archives. Some records can be accessed online at archive offices or on genealogy websites such as familysearch.org, ancestry.com, and myheritage.com.

Over the years, people were taxed on a variety of things, such as the land or property they owned, business licenses, income, and various other things. The way things were taxed varied by time and location, but the tax records can offer clues valuable for genealogical research.

The genealogical value of tax records

Tax records typically only include the name of the person (or business) taxed, their place of residence, what they were being taxed on, and how much they were taxed. The specificity of the place of residence will vary. For instance, during the 1864 annual tax the residence in New York City typically included a street address. However for Litchfield County, Connecticut, only a town of residence was given.

Information found on tax records can be very valuable when trying to trace your ancestor. This is especially true for ancestors who relocated or moved around. Sometimes tax records are available for years when the census records have been lost for a particular location. While a tax record is not as detailed as a census record, it can still be powerful by placing someone at a particular place at a particular time.

If an individual is found on a direct tax record, it is a clue that they may have had enough assets to leave a will, and if they were not on the tax record, the opposite may be true. While due diligence research would likely include probate research either way, knowing the value of their assets will help ascertain whether you need to keep digging (or alternately determine what happened to their assets) when an original search ended without finding a probate record.

Tax records can indicate when someone became of taxable age based on their appearance on tax records. When someone stops appearing on tax lists, it can hint at when someone may have died, although disappearing from tax lists does not necessarily mean they died. No longer appearing on income or revenue based taxes could suggest retirement, while not appearing on property-based tax lists just means they no longer have the property that is being assessed. Death is only one of the reasons someone may no longer own the property.

Tax records can help identify neighbors and other people known to the individual in question, which may be helpful in other research. People of similar occupations may be related, especially if a business license transfers from one person to another.

One thing to keep in mind is that tax lists do not include everyone. Only those with taxable items or revenue will be found on a tax list. Also, only the person (or business) taxed is listed, and not household members or employees.

Understanding tax records

Examining a tax form can provide a lot of information. But there is a lot of information NOT on the form, such as the rules the tax assessor needed to follow.

I have chosen to use several examples of how to use the tax records that began in 1862 because it was both a direct tax (on things like carriages and silver plates) and an income tax. But keep in mind there are other records available at both the state and federal level for other time periods.

The Revenue Act of 1862 provided 58 pages of information for collecting taxes.5 Luckily the document has margin summaries for each paragraph so it is easier to skim the document and it can be searched for particular words or phrases using the find option on a computer. Each type of tax charged by the Act is explained in the document and can help you get the most out of the tax record.

Both an annual tax and a monthly tax were created by the Revenue Act of 1862. Annual taxes collected fees for business and trade licenses and duties on possessions such as carriages and silver plates. Monthly taxes were duties on the revenue created by a person or business, or in other words, a form of income tax. The 1862 annual tax list can be helpful when used in combination with the monthly tax list. For instance, if a person paid a $10 manufacturer fee on the annual form and then paid a $8.28 tax one month on $138 worth of diaper pins, one can infer that he manufactured diaper pins.6

It is also important to understand that for the Civil War tax, the names on the tax records could be for a person or a business. An umbrella manufacturer taxed under the name Westmore Dearborn only identifies the business.7 And while Westmore and Dearborn were likely the surnames of business partners, it cannot be concluded whether both partners were still alive at the time of the tax, nor does it identify their first names. Further investigation would be required. Some duties on revenue were only listed under the name of the business owner or self-employed person, such as the man manufacturing diaper pins. Employees of a business would not appear on the monthly tax list, although they may be included on the annual tax if they owned taxable items.

Learning about the different taxes

Each tax assessment was a little different. Understanding who and what was taxed can help get the most out of the tax record.

There are several ways of learning more about a particular tax. I’m a big fan of going directly to the source, such as the 58 page document explaining the 1862 Revenue Act.8 However, I understand that is not for everyone. An internet search of a particular tax will sometimes suffice, but will never be as detailed as reading the actual rules.

Another place to get information about a tax record is to look at the first few pages of the record. This means if you are looking at a microfilm or a digital image, look at the beginning of the image set. When looking at an original record, look at the beginning of the book to see what, if any, information is provided. Sometimes there are instructions for who is to be assessed.

The National Archives Film publications include a couple of pages explaining the taxes for 1862-1874.9 The explanatory information appears to have been written for the purpose of including it with the microfilming of the records. It provides a basic overview of the tax and is a great starting place for understanding the record. Each record set for various locations includes these explanatory pages. The majority of the information is the same for each location, but may mention local specific information, such as years taxed (since it was during the civil war, not all states were taxed since they may not have been part of the Union). Two paragraphs explained what was taxed annually and what was taxed monthly. For instance, annual business licenses were required for trades and occupations and are included on the annual tax form. These explanatory pages are at the beginning of the records on familysearch.org, but I did not see any on the ancestry.com record sets that I checked. Ancestry.com has the records indexed while familysearch.org does not.

Another source of information about a record is "an explanation of the sources" found on ancestry.com. These explanations are available for anyone to read, even those without a subscription. However, Ancestry only includes one explanation for the entire record set so the information provided might be very general.10

What next?

Since the city or town of residence is often included, other records in that area can be searched, such as birth, marriage, burial, baptism, cemetery, church records, local histories, and more. The amount an individual was taxed can give a general idea of their financial status at the time. If your ancestor appears on a tax record, they likely were not among the labor workers, and they may have left other records such as probate records. If an occupation was listed, we can search for records relating to their occupation, such as guild records.

While tax records may not seem incredibly useful by themselves, they can be incredibly useful when used in combination with other records to piece together the life of your ancestors.

  1. Internal Revenue Service, Previous IRS Commissioners, retrieved 15 April 2021 ↩

  2. Thirty-Seventh United States Congress, Thirty-Seventh Congress:Session 2 Chapter CXIX, retrieved 13 April 2021. ↩

  3. Fifth United States Congress, Fifth Congress, Session 2, Chapter LXXV [75], accessed 13 April 2021. ↩

  4. Tax History Museum, The Revolutionary War to the War of 1812, accessed 13 April 2021. ↩

  5. Thirty-Seventh United States Congress, Thirty-Seventh Congress:Session 2 Chapter CXIX, retrieved 13 April 2021. ↩

  6. Yes, this is a real example! JW Stewart of 242 Canal St in NYC was assessed a $10 manufacturing annual tax and then was taxed on diaper pins on a monthly tax. “United States Internal Revenue Assessment Lists, 1862-1874," images, Family Search (familysearch.org: accessed 13 April 2021), New York, NYC Ward 5, T56, District 4, monthly and special lists 1865 Jun-Dec, image 14 of 61, entry for JW Stewart; citing NARA Series M603, Roll 56. “United States Internal Revenue Assessment Lists, 1862-1874," images, Family Search (familysearch.org: accessed 13 April 2021), New York, NYC Ward 5, T53, District 4, annual lists 1865-1866, entry for JW Stewart, image 19 of 795; citing NARA Series M603, Roll 53. ↩

  7. “United States Internal Revenue Assessment Lists, 1862-1874," images, Family Search (familysearch.org: accessed 13 April 2021), New York, NYC Ward 5, T56, District 4, monthly and special lists 1865 Jun-Dec, image 15 of 611, entry for Wetmore Dearborn; citing NARA Series M603, Roll 56. ↩

  8. Thirty-Seventh United States Congress, Thirty-Seventh Congress:Session 2 Chapter CXIX, retrieved 13 April 2021. ↩

  9. “United States Internal Revenue Assessment Lists, 1862-1874”; digital database with images, familysearch.org (accessed 13 April 2021); citing NARA publications. ↩

  10. Ancestry, U.S., IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918, accessed 13 April 2021. This is an example of the information Ancestry.com provides for IRS tax records. ↩

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