Researching Tax Records

Online Lesson:
RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees - "Taxing Tales ... Unromantic, but reliable, and sometimes quite revealing"

 

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Sussex County Ratables

“Colonial Tax Lists”

 

 

Note:  There are no known tax lists for Warren County that have been microfilmed.  Original lists for Warren County may exist at the County Court house in Belvidere. Sussex County lists are available on microfilm through a Family History Center or by visiting the New Jersey State Archives.

 

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Assessment lists of the Federal Bureau of Internal Revenue, 1862-66

a.k.a. “Internal Revenue Assessment lists for New York and New Jersey, 1862-1866“

National Archives microfilm publication: M603

 

 

"The assessment lists are arranged in four basic categories: (1) monthly, (2) annual, (3) special, and (4) miscellaneous. Each category is arranged by collection district and there under chronologically."

 

"The entries in the monthly lists are for taxes paid or collected on a monthly basis; those in the annual lists, for taxes paid or collected annually. The special lists augment incomplete monthly and annual lists. They also cover those taxes that were labeled by the assessors as 'special,' for example, the special income tax. The miscellaneous category covers taxes that cannot be identified by type or particular district or date.”

 

"The Internal Revenue Act of July 1, 1862, was intended 'to provide internal revenue to support the government and to pay interest on the public debt.' Monthly specific and ad valorem duties were placed on manufactures, articles, and products ranging from ale to zinc. Monthly taxes were levied on the gross receipts of transportation companies; on interest paid on bonds; on surplus funds accumulated by financial institutions and insurance companies; on gross receipts from auction sales; and on cattle, hogs, and sheep slaughtered for sale. Gross receipts of newspapers from advertising were subject to a quarterly tax. Annual licenses were required for all trades and occupations, and annual duties were placed on carriages, yachts, billiard tables, and plate."