Early Tennessee Tax Lists Now Online

Early Tennessee Tax List for Davidson County, 1829.
Tennessee State Library and Archives

April 15 can be a taxing day for all of us living in modern times, but our ancestors didn’t have it much easier. Although our federal income tax only dates back to the Civil War era, Tennesseans have been paying state and local taxes since long before then.

Now Tennessee tax records dating back to 1783 are available free online to Tennesseans, thanks to a partnership between the Tennessee State Library and Archives and Ancestry.com. The online database contains records from 71 of Tennessee’s 95 counties. Famous notables like Andrew Jackson (who paid $66 in taxes to Davidson County in 1829) appear side by side with ordinary farmers, millers and laborers.

To read more about these tax records, including a link to the tax list database, please see: http://tnsos.org/Press/story.php?item=507.

The State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State.