I was perusing some of the tax lists for the 1840s in Mason Co., KY recently. As you know, they have columns for counting the amounts of various assets for taxation. Some columns are for particular luxury items -- one year they had a column specifically for "Billiard tables". But one column seemed unusual: "Children between five and sixteen years old". This did not include slaves, who were counted separately, but rather the property owner's own children. Anyone know the purpose of this count? Was it possibly used as an exemption of some sort? Doug Gordon