Virginia TaxationEdit This Page From FamilySearch Wiki At first
glance, researchers might conclude that Virginia tax lists
contain very little family history data, though one soon learns
that valuable genealogical conclusions can be deduced from these
records, nicknamed "annual censuses," such as: relationships,
approximate years of birth, socio-economic status,
identification of neighbors, the ability to distinguish between
persons of the same name, evidence of land inheritance, years of
migration, and years of death. Virginia began enumerating
residents' payments of personal property and land taxes in 1782.
These two types of taxation were recorded in separate registers.
Personal property tax lists include more names than land tax
lists, because they caught more of the population. The Family
History Library has an excellent microfilm collection of
personal property tax lists from 1782 (or the year the county
was organized) well into the late nineteenth century for most
counties, but only scattered land tax