Tracing the Tax Tree: The Good Old Days of 1819
December 15th, 2007As a genealogy geek, I enjoy aligning events – such as changing tax code laws – to my family tree to imagine how my ancestors might have reacted to these changes. Even when I can’t imagine their reactions, I’m glad they paid their taxes. I never would have found my third great-grandfather, Jesse, if he hadn’t paid his “head of household” tax in 1819. Most 19th-century taxes, such as the head of household tax, were gathered at the local level, as federal revenue consisted of excise taxes and tariffs to pay for government expenses. There were only three instances from the time of the Revolutionary War to 1913 when taxes were imposed directly on the American public.