Some Early Tax Digests of Georgia

Description

In the absence of the 1790, 1800, and 1810 censuses of Georgia, these early tax lists are a godsend, standing in as almost perfect substitutes for the missing enumerations and in many ways improving on the detail found in most old census records. The counties for which tax records are provided, with their years of coverage, are as follows: Camden 1794, 1809; Chatham 1806; Glynn 1790, 1794; Hancock 1812; Lincoln 1818; Montgomery 1797, 1798, 1805, 1806; Pulaski 1818; Richmond 1818; Warren 1794, 1805, 1818; Wilkes 1792, 1793, 1794. For each tax list a great deal of information is provided that cannot be found in any other record source. For example, each tax list generally gives the name of the taxpayer, the name of the adjoining property owner, and the name of the original grantee of land–information impossible to find in a census record and of the utmost importance in genealogical research. In addition, though less relevant genealogically, the tax lists identify the number of slaves attached to the property, the watercourses, the acreage, and the value of the land.