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Online Resources

 * 1800-1950 - at  FamilySearch — index and images  A wiki article describing this collection is found at: Ohio Tax Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Why Use Tax Records
By studying several consecutive years of tax records you may determine when a young men came of age, when individuals moved in and out of a home, or when they died leaving heirs. Authorities determined wealth (real estate, or income) to be taxed. Taxes can be for polls, real and personal estate, or schools.

Tax record content varies and may include the name and residence of the taxpayer, description of the real estate, name of original purchaser, description of personal property, number of males over 21, number of school children, slaves, and farm animals. Tax records usually are arranged by date and locality and are not normally indexed. Tax records can be used in place of missing land and census records to locate a person’s residence. person’s residence.

County Level
Tax records for Ohio began as early as 1800. The archives section of the Ohio Historical Society "Now known as the Ohio History Connection" has a collection of original Ohio tax lists from the state auditor's office. They include lists from the county's organization to 1838, usually arranged by county and township. They are not indexed.

County courthouses hold various tax records that have not been inventoried. They are in the office of the county auditor or the county records manager. Tax duplicates are at the Ohio Historical Society. Now known as The Ohio History Connection

The Ohio History Connection Located in: Ohio Expo Center & State Fair Address: 800 E. 17th Ave Columbus, OH 43211 Phone: (614) 297-2300

State Level
Because only persons who owned taxable property were listed, many residents were not included in tax lists. There may also be gaps of several years in the tax records of some counties.


 * Real property tax lists contain the owner's name, the location (section/range/township) of the property, the number of acres owned, and the types of buildings on the land. Land purchased from the federal government was not taxable for five years. As a result, many persons living in the Congress Lands (see the "Land and Property" page) will not appear on tax lists until the year their land became taxable.

Printed Books on Tax lists:
 * Early tax Records Powell, Esther Weygandt, Early Ohio Tax Records (Akron, Ohio:Ohio State auditor) Located at various libraries click on WorldCat on this link to find other locations  Includes a surname index to early Ohio tax records.  (Does not include all tax lists and counties that are at the archives.)


 * Petty, Gerald M., Ohio 1810 tax duplicate arranged in a state-wide alphabetical list of names of taxpayers : with an index of names of original entries. (Columbus, Ohio:Petty, c1976) Located at various libraries click on WorldCat  on this link to find other locations.


 * A series of 90 Volumes of tax bound abstracts are available through the Ohio Historical Society. Each volume is bound annually. The abstracts are arranged alphabetically by county name within each volume. Abstracts prior to 1925 were destroyed in a fire. The abstracts from 1926 to 1954, are contained in one volume. After 1955, each year's abstracts are take up two volumes.

The National Archives-Great Lakes Region retains numerous federal tax records for Ohio. These include assessment books for 1867-73 - corporate and personal records for District 10, Toledo and District 11, Columbus.

Great Lakes Archives/Chicago Ill. Adderess: 7358 South Pulaski Road Chicago, IL 60629 Phone: 773-948-9001 Email:  chicago.archives@nara.gov​



Tax Laws
Ohio tax records can help you trace families moving through Ohio during the early years when Ohio was a crossroads of the Old Northwest.These records complement land records and can be used in place of censuses before 1820 or to supplement the years between censuses.

Abraham Lincoln instituted the income tax in 1862, and on July 1, 1862, Congress passed the Internal Revenue Act, creating the Bureau of Internal Revenue (later renamed to the Internal Revenue Service). This act was intended to “provide Internal Revenue to support the Government and to pay interest on the Public Debt.” Instituted in the height of the Civil War, the “Public Debt” at the time primarily consisted of war expenses. For the Southern States that were part of the Confederate side of the Civil War, once Union troops took over parts of the Southern States, income tax were instituted on them.


 * To learn more about this Collection click here


 * To learn more about the Civil War taxes click here

Family History Library

 * The Family History Library has microfilms for existing tax records for Ohio before 1838. Tax records from 1801 to 1814 for the state of Ohio and County records from 1816 to 1838 may be found in the FamilySearch Catalog by using the Place-name Search for:


 * OHIO - TAXATION.
 * OHIO, [County] - TAXATION.


 * There are also several published statewide indexes, such as those for 1800 to 1810, 1804, 1810, 1812, 1825, and 1835. These are listed in the Place-name Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:


 * OHIO - TAXATION INDEXES.

While these indexes are helpful tools to find ancestors, be aware that some counties may be missing entirely from the indexes.


 * For an inventory of tax records up to 1969, see:


 * Tax Records of Ohio Counties: A Register of Contents of the Collection Microfilmed at the Ohio Historical Society Library in 1968. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1969.)

Ohio Tax Records - FamilySearch Historical Records