Lucy--there may be OTHER records which refer to these people other than tax lists, though the tax lists are certainly the most detailed year-by-year records where one may find a place and time. The Personal Property tax lists are in some ways a better barometer than the dicennial (sp?) census records. Much more detail in some respects (tithables, slaves, horses, cattle, carriages, etc). The land tax records are equally valuable. Not everyone owned land, but everyone was a tithable. And for those working with a common name, they are indespensible. They can be the ONLY means to separate one John Smith from another John Smith. I well recall when I was a state legislator in Missouri one of my friends from "across the aisle" said in an open public meeting that "any and all human endeavors are a taxable event." I about went into orbit. But the moral of the story is that you can't escape the tax man, and this is nothing new. Tax lists are tedious to go through, but boy oh boy can you learn a lot from them if you have the patience. A frequent question from clients arises about them. Does being on a tax list mean the person being taxed actually lived in that county. NO. You were taxed on land and on personal property within that county, even if you actually lived somewhere else--just as today. Sometimes that will be so noted, and give you the county where the person actually lived. On the land tax lists, at the end of each list, is the "alterations to the tax list" where one can sometimes find the answer to what happened to a piece of property, as in listing the seller and the buyer. When faced with a dead end on chains of title, these often give you the clue to finding the answer. All serious researchers should make tax lists their best friend. We are lucky that so many lists survive from such a long time ago. The tax commissioners' job was not to save records for future genealogists, but to collect that year's levy. Working with these lists is indeed tedious, but it pays big dividends. Craig On Oct 25, 2008, at 12:53 PM, lucyfortmyers7@comcast.net wrote: > Gary: It looks like this answers the question of why it is so > difficult to find info on our Butlers in that area during the time > periods that we need answers to. > > Lucy > > -------------- Original message -------------- > From: Craig Kilby <persisto@earthlink.net> > >> As one who has worked with these list extensively, the short answer >> is NO, they no longer exist. I believe the microfilm states this. >> >> On Oct 25, 2008, at 12:09 PM, Mike & Linda Stockdale wrote: >> >>> I ordered microfilm of the Culpeper County personal property tax >>> lists >>> 1803-1823 through the local FHC. There was a note on the film that >>> the >>> tax books for 1805-1807 and 1809-1810 were missing at the time of >>> filming [1987]. I'm aware that no no tax lists are available for >>> 1808, >>> but does anyone on the list know if tax lists for these years >>> actually >>> exist? >>> Thanks, >>> Linda Stockdale >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------- >>> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to VACULPEP- >>> request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes >>> in the subject and the body of the message >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> VACULPEP-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without >> the quotes in >> the subject and the body of the message > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to VACULPEP- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message