I know, I’m a little late, the 15th has come and gone. But, in the spirit…
Tonight, before another hurricane blew through north Texas, I was checking out Ancestry.com’s new database, U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918. I found a few of my Kennedys in Alabama and Mississippi. Maybe this is why they headed west after the Civil War.
In 1865, my 3rd great-grandfather, Dr. Nathan B Kennedy, was taxed for…a watch and a piano! The forerunner of a “kinder, gentler IRS”?
Ruth, I think that those might have been standard taxables (strangely enough) because my ggg aunt Lydia Hicks was taxed for a gold watch and a pianoforte in 1866…she had to pay $3!
Or maybe our ancestors just had similar possessions…