If people needed it or enjoyed it, there probably was a tax on it. Here are twelve ways I have used tax records to prove relationships between people.
1. Time of death
Some taxes were registered every year. I have used real estate tax records that list when the previous owner died. In places without burial registers, this can help to rule that person in or out as a prospective parent. For example, if a marriage record mentioned that the parents were deceased, but the tax records show a potential parent alive and well, that can rule them out.
2. Migration
Some real estate tax records mentioned where people came from or moved to. This can open up new avenues of research, since you have a new place to look for records about the person of interest.
3. Previous owners
Real estate tax records may show who the previous owners were of a property. If the deeds are complete but you do not find a purchase record, they may have inherited the property. The previous owners may turn out to be the parents.
1575 property tax record from Tilburg, showing owners
4. Owners of properties
Some tax records may mention owners and users, like the vote registers in Friesland. It is possible the records of the owners mention more details about their tenants. For example, the estate inventory of owners may mention any overdue rents. If the family archives of the owners survive, they may even have the tenancy contracts, which may reveal more details about the tenants.
5. Manors
If the ancestors were serfs, which continued in some places in eastern Gelderland and Overijssel until 1795, tax records may show the manors that their farms belonged to. The manorial records may have detailed information about the serfs, including when they married or died.
6. Household composition
Some taxes, like mill taxes, were dependent on the household composition. By comparing the household composition in different years, you can see when someone left the household. If that coincides with a marriage date of the person you are looking for, that is a nice piece of indirect evidence that you have found their parental family.
1760-1761 mill tax record
7. Heirs in death duties files
Death duties files usually list the heirs with their relationship to the deceased.
8. Taxed percentage
I have found some inheritance tax files that did not specify how the heir was related to the deceased, but did mention the % of inheritance tax that was due. By researching the different rates, I was able to determine the person had to be at the first cousin or grand-nephew level, rather than a closer relation. This helped me confirm a theory.
9. Collateral lines
If an unmarried person died intestate, their siblings or nieces and nephews would inherit. Collateral tax records can have extensive genealogical information.
Tax collector, 1704. Credits: collection Rijksmuseum (public domain)
10. Changes in wealth
In some periods, there was a wealth tax. I had a case where a suspected parent died. I knew from wealth tax records before he died how much his estate would have been worth, even though there was no surviving estate inventory. The wealth tax records showed that their suspected only child’s wealth increased by the same amount after the parent’s death. It was one piece of the puzzle that helped me prove that they were in fact father and daughter.
11. Social class
Tax records can tell you what social class your ancestor belonged to. If they were exempted because they were poor, they are unlikely to be the child of people taxed at the highest rate, or vice versa. Social class alone will never prove a relationship, but comparing the social class of the parents and children is a good sanity check. If the class of the parents does not match the class of the child, that would be a conflict you need to resolve. For example, if you know the parents went bankrupt, then it makes sense for the child to have less wealth.
12. Occupation
Some tax records show occupations. Occupations often ran in families, where the eldest son would take over the family business. For example, if you are looking for the parents of a baker, checking hearth tax records to see who had to pay taxes for a baker’s oven may give you a list of candidates to be the father.
A baker and his wife 1658. Credits: Jan Steen, collection Rijksmuseum (public domain)
About Yvette Hoitink
