Sorting Land Transactions by Date

When I go to a courthouse to do land research, I make spreadsheet of the land transactions that I find for each couple to summarize the information that I find.  Here's the link to a sample spreadsheet.  I feel it's important to sort the transactions by effective date - sometimes you see connections between transactions this way.

(Note that the effective date, the date that the document was signed, may differ significantly from the recording or filing date.  Occasionally someone delayed taking the deed to the courthouse for a long time.  The effective date is when the transfer of ownership and money actually happened - not the date when it was recorded in the courthouse to inform the public.)

When my great-grandfather Heinrich Reimer #317342 (1856-1923) moved from Jansen, Nebr., to Meade, Kans., in September 1908, he sold his land in Nebraska and bought land in Kansas.  Some of the transactions line up neatly.  For example:

• He sold 80 acres in Nebraska for $5000 on 27 May 1908.  
• Then he proceeded to buy 160 acres in Kansas for $4500 on 22 August 1908
• And he bought another 80 acres in Kansas on 20 October 1908 for $2000.  

It seems very likely that his sale of land in Nebraska for $5000 funded a large part of his purchase of land in Kansas for $6500.  He didn't buy all of his Kansas land with the proceeds from sales in Nebraska, but there are several tracts that he bought this way.  Since I sorted the transactions by date (instead of grouping the Nebraska and Kansas transactions separately), it's easy to see which transactions occurred close together.

In another example, my great-grandfather Jacob Suderman #319370 (1856-1906) and his family moved from Buhler, Kans., to Fairchilds, Tex., in 1898.

• In preparation for the move, he bought 334 acres in Texas for $3343 on 1 December 1897, using a lien from the seller for the purchase.  
• But he paid that lien in full by 18 August 1898.  
• Then he sold his Kansas land three weeks later on 8 September 1898 for $5700.  

Obviously, he didn't need the proceeds from his Kansas sale to pay the lien on his newly-purchased Texas land.  Based on this sequence of events and on other things (property tax records and his obituary), it is clear that he was a moderately wealthy man.  But I might have missed this small but significant detail if I hadn't sorted the land transactions by date.

Going to the Courthouse - Tax Records

Given the inevitability of death and taxes, it is also inevitable that taxes had to be recorded at the courthouse.  Most counties levied property tax on those who owned real estate and livestock and on other assets as well.  Property tax records are valuable for two reasons - first, they are annual, so they fill in the gaps between the decennial censuses and purchases and sales of land.  Second, they show the major property that a person owned.  So definitely don't skip the property tax records.

Usually the older property tax records are no longer in the county assessor's office but archived somewhere.  These records are less used, so they are a bit harder to find.  But ask at the county assessor's office first.  I've really dug into them one time, and that was for Fort Bend County, Texas, and there they turned out to be in the Fort Bend County library's genealogy room on microfilm.  I've also found them at the county seat's historical library.  And they are probably not indexed, so it will take a bit of time to search them.

Here is an example of a property tax record for my great-grandfather David Fast #86812 (1858-1932) when he lived in Fort Bend County, Texas, in 1903.

G. J. Fast, Peter J. Fast, and David Fast, lines #8-10, Form B, Tax Rolls, 1903, Fort Bend County, Texas, no page, Fort Bend County Tax Rolls 1838-1910, George Memorial Library, Richmond, Texas, reel #1079-03.

There are three brothers, Gerhard, Peter, and David, who are living next to each other in the Mennonite settlement.  It gives the legal description for their land, the number of acres and the value of the land, and how many head of each kind of livestock and their value.  The second page, which I have not included here, shows the number and value of wagons and carriages, the value of stocks and bonds, the value of business inventory and other taxable property, and the amount of each type of tax due.  So even one property tax assessment shows a lot about a family. 

But even more interesting is to compare the three brothers over time since I found tax assessments for them for 1898 to 1906.  David was the oldest brother, and he had significantly more than the other two.  But all of them improved over time.  David started with 2 cows in 1898 but had 23 by 1905.  Brother Gerhard started with 1 cow and built up to 11 by 1906.  Brother Peter started with 2 cows and eventually had 8.  But my other great-grandfather who lived there, Jacob Suderman #319370 (1856-1906), started with 13 cows in 1899 and had 61 at his peak in 1903.  He had three times as much land as David Fast did and many more cattle, so he was clearly a wealthier man.  In fact, he had the largest piece of land in the Mennonite settlement.

Here's a little piece of a spreadsheet I made to analyze the tax information from all my ancestors and relatives in the county.  Putting it all together like this really showed the contrasts between them.

I was living in Houston, Texas, at the time, so it was easier to go to Richmond and spend 3-4 afternoons there digging the property tax records out of the microfilm.  The records will help to show residence and socioeconomic status for each year that the family lived in the county and owned taxable property.  No doubt, they will take some time, but they are well worth finding.