Notes on the Early Tax Rolls of Christian Co., KY

Barack OBAMA, 44th President of the United States
descendant of Johann Pieter STRAUB, 1733 immigrant to Philadelphia, PA
"We are and always will be the United States of America." (4 Nov 2008, Grant Park, Chicago, IL)

The county tax book is a copy of the tax lists compiled by the listers (tax collectors) after they made their rounds and entered into book by the county clerk/recorder. The original lists would have been on loose pieces of paper, but these seldom survive. The microfilm of the Christian Co. tax rolls (Christian County, Kentucky, Tax Rolls, 1797-1816. Heritage Quest, Microfilm No. V20-72) is of the county tax book, not the original tax lists.

In entering the tax lists into the tax book, the county clerk roughly alphabetized the surnames. That is, surnames beginning with the same letter were lumped together, but the surnames and given names within that letter were not alphabetized. Before 1811, the date the list was turned in to the county clerk by the lister was sometimes recorded next to the taxpayer's name; after 1811, these dates were not recorded.

The more you work with the tax lists, the more you realize how sloppy, inconsistent, and incomplete they are. Don't read them absolutely literally, and don't conclude that because someone is absent for a year or more that they are not in the county. People were occasionally exempted from taxes, for a variety of reasons (e.g., old age, poverty, service to the community, widowhood, etc.), and sometimes — despite the inevitability of death and taxes — a person simply appears to have missed.

The county was divided into just two districts: initially, into North and South (1797-1803), then into East and West (after 1803), but the tax rolls did not distinguish between districts every year. The rolls reflect the two districts in these years:

Year Referred to As

1799 No. 1 and No. 2

1801 North/No. 1 and South/No. 2

1804-1806 North and South

1807-1809 East/No. 1 and West/No. 2

My transcriptions are always verbatim; a question mark indicates my uncertainty as to the reading of the record. A grey cell in the table means that datum was not taken that year. Here is the sample blank template, showing what data were taken in what years:

Year District Dates of
Receiving
Lists Persons Names
Chargeable with
the Tax A B C D E F G Acres Watercourse In Whose Name
Entered In Whose Name
Surveyed* In Whose Name
Patented*

1^st 2^nd 3^rd

1797 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1798 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1799 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1800 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1801 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1802 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1803 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1804 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1805 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1806 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1807 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1808 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1809 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1810 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1811 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1812 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1813 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1814 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1815 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1816 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Legend for numerical data: A = White Males 21 or over; B = White Males 16-20; C = Blacks over 16; D = Total Blacks; E = Horses & Mares (gelded male horses and female horses); F = Stud Horses (intact male horses); G = Rate of Covering (stud fee, in dollars); 1st/2nd/3rd refer to 1st Rate, 2nd Rate, or 3rd Rate land.
*"Same" in this column means "ditto," but to the left, not above (i.e., to the previous column, not the previous row).