Index To
Early Tennessee Tax Lists
Transcribed & Indexed by
Byron & Barbara Sistler
Evanston IL 1977
(Excerpted)

Introduction

Research in Tennessee for the period prior to 1830 poses some difficult problems because no complete census schedules for the state exist before that date. The 1800 census schedules were entirely lost or destroyed, and for 1810 only Rutherford Co. has been saved. The 1820 lists for almost all the eastern counties are missing.

For genealogists seeking county of origin of early settlers the only feasible approach is through the county tax lists,m petitions and newspaper accounts. To facilitate this search and simplify the pin-pointing of county of residence we have prepared this index to those early lists. With this "bare bones" information we hope we can send many frustrated ancestor hunters winging on their ways toward the flesh and blood material of which good family histories are made.

This is a single index to 68 county tax lists, petitions, voter lists, and newspaper lists of inhabitants in 34 Tennessee Counties. There are about 46,000 entries in all. We believe we have taken all known tax lists into consideration (though not all have been included in the index, since those for years after census schedules are available were not deemed useful and in most cases the transcribing of lists less than 5 years apart would not add significant value to the work.)

The Earliest list included is from 1787 and the latest 1827. About 2/3 of the state's counties in existence by 1820 are included in one or more lists.

While some tax lists included additional information, such as acreage, number of "polls" etc., there is no data of genealogical value in them other than the name of household head and the county.. Since the primary purpose of this book is a directional aid we have omitted this extraneous information.

The index itself is simple enough to follow. You will find the name of the subject followed by a county symbol (see inside front cover) and a date, which represents the year of that particular list.

All of the tax lists are on file at the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville TN.

Lists represented by this index are as follows:

Early TN Tax Lists

1796-1825

page 184

Small, Daniel,
Sevier-1799
Wilson-1804
Greene-1805
Greene-1812

Small, Henry,
Warren-1812

Small, John,
Greene-1812

Small, William,
Blount-1800
Blount-1801

Smallin, Samuel
Carter-1796
Carter-1798

Smallin, Solomon
Sullivan-1796

Smallin, Thomas
Sullivan-1812
Sullivan-1797
Sullivan-1796

Smallman, Burks
White-1825

Smallman, Grief
White-1825

Smallman, John
White-1825

Smallwood, John
Warren-1812
Warren-1805
Giles-1812

Smally, John
Franklin-1812

Tax Lists of Raone County Tennessee 1814-1821
By Roane County Records Commission
1969

page 205

1819 Tax List

Name	Acres	WP
Small Robert	6	0

Page 233
1820 Tax List

Name	Acres	WP
Small, Robert	6	1
�	�	�

Page 253
Land admitted to Registration
Small to Mooman; 6 acres