It is best to read the law. While I can speak for Kentucky only until statehood, rules changed. At some points in Virginia the tax commissioner made the rounds and created his list; during other times he would attend a muster or camp out at a local tavern to collect the lists. I have actually found among the tax records the individual slips of paper strung on string---one string for each letter of the alphabet; the commissioner then used these to create his list. I've seen the original commissioner's books with the signatures of the individuals attesting to the accuracy of the amounts. I've seen the sheriff's books which include other fees that he was also supposed to collect. I've even seen one commissioner's book that noted the number of the militia district of each individual in one of the columns. To make a long story short-there was more than one copy and what you are looking at is probably the list compiled by the commissioner with the date he received the list from the individual. However, without reading the law for the period to determine what the process was at the given time you cannot be sure. Typically lists were compiled in the spring and collection was made in the fall after the crops were in. However, bad weather, epidemics, and Indian incursions among other events sometimes delayed the compiling of the lists and/or the payment. It is also wise to follow the lists to see if patterns appear and how things change when there is a new commissioner. Barbara Vines Little, CG, FNGS, FVGS PO Box 1273 Orange, VA 22960 540-832-3473 [email protected] CG, Certified Genealogist, is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board-certified genealogists after periodic evaluation; the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. On 1/5/2015 7:58 PM, Patricia Hobbs via wrote: > Granted I have not looked at that many Kentucky tax lists, but those I'm > viewing for Washington County, Kentucky, have something I've not seen in > other tax lists. > > Each list is arranged in the usual way by first letter of last name. There > is one list for the year for the entire county-- not divided by "captains" > as I've seen in some. Along the left margins are dates ranging from May > through September-- most being in May through July. There are not very many > days represented in each month -- perhaps two or three, but sometimes only > one. There are many names listed under each date, so each person is not > individually dated. AND the dates are not in order. So you might have May > 27 with a few names, and then June 10 with a few names. Then back to April > 12 with a few names. Sometimes there is only one name associated with a > date. > > I'm wondering how this might have been created, and wondered if anyone > would know. I at first thought that entries were made spread out in order > to allow additional entries. Then the scribe returned and filled in the > gaps when he ran out of space. Would the groups of people on a particular > date represent those who happened to come into a town on a particular date, > or might he have been traveling about the countryside rating the land? If > he was traveling perhaps those listed on the same dates in the various > letters of surnames were living in the same general area. > > I have thought that a useful exercise might be to try to reconstruct the > list as the assessor did to see if some logical reason springs to mind, but > I thought I'd ask first if anyone already knows. ;-) > > Patti > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >