Bedford County, Tennessee, Early Tax Lists, 1812 - 1839

Catalog number BCT-TAL-1

The CD-ROM Bedford County, Tennessee, Early Tax Lists, 1812 - 1839 of  contains the seven earliest surviving tax lists of Bedford County, Tennessee. The dates of these lists are: 1812, 1814, 1836, 1837, 1838, and 1839. The 1812 tax list is arranged in tax districts according to the names of the Captains of the districts. The 1814 tax list is a single semi-alphabetical list that covers only roughly the north-eastern quarter of the county. The 1836, 1837, 1838, and 1839 tax lists are organized by civil district.

Go to the tutorial: Using information found in tax lists.

Among the types of information that can be determined by analyzing tax lists are:

1. ages and relationships among taxpayers,
2. period of residence,
3. ownership of taxable property,
4. date of death,
5. identification of land passed by probate, and
6. newly acquired property.

The tax list for each civil district is semi-alphabetical, so all entries for the first letter of a name must be checked to locate a given surname. This is usually not difficult since the total number of pages in each civil district is typically ten pages or less and the entries beginning with the same letter of the alphabet are almost always on only one or two pages. 

To simplify the search for a given individual it is helpful to know the civil district(s) where they paid tax on land or slaves. To help with this, two maps are provided:

1. A map showing the location of the civil districts of Bedford County, Tennessee during the time these tax lists were recorded. 
2. A later map that shows the location of main roads and communities as well as the civil districts. 

You can see extracts from the actual pages of these tax lists by following these links: 1812, 1814 (right hand page), 1814 (left hand page), 1836, 1837, 1838, and 1839. A tutorial on tax lists and how to use the information in tax lists is located here.

All pages in these lists can be quickly and individually accessed - no need to search through a roll of microfilm to find the page of interest. Pages can be printed directly on almost any  printer attached to your local computer - no need to pay the high copying costs at a library or archives and accept the poor quality prints produced by most microfilm printers.  For little more that the non-refundable $5 fee that is charged by the archives to search for a single name in a specific indexed tax list (only the 1812 tax list in the case of Bedford County is indexed a the archives!), you can own a full copy of all seven early tax lists and the published indices to these lists covering a 27 year period! The archives will not search for a name on a tax list that is not indexed (see here for details). The 1814, 1836, 1837, 1838, and 1839 tax lists of Bedford County, Tennessee are not indexed!

The page images contained in this product were prepared from microfilm published by the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA). The original  microfilm images are from three separate rolls: Roll 11 in the Tennessee Early Tax Lists Record Group (transcribed and indexed tax lists) at TSLA, and rolls 1 and 10 in the Tennessee Tax Lists Record Group at TSLA. The documents contained on the microfilm are both the handwritten original tax list for all seven tax years plus an index for the tax list for 1812.

Before ordering, you should review the license agreement.

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