Finding people who should be present in a neighborhood is sometimes a challenge. In recent weeks, several individuals have been mentioned who have only one or two mentions in the records. The case of George Trumbo was mentioned; he appears only in a baptismal record as a parent. But, thanks to a fellow researcher, he was identified. He was not a resident in the area associated with the Germanna people and we will not find many records for him in the courthouses where Germanna people usually leave their traces.
Thanks to Barbara Vines Little and Nancy Dodge, I have just learned that a record has been found for an individual for whom I had been looking for years. In this case the search was more difficult because the recorded name bears little resemblance to the true name. One could read the recorded name ten times and never suspect what the underlying name was. When I learn more, the family will be discussed.
All of this preamble is an introduction to the 1787 tax lists for Virginia. In 1786, the Virginia Assembly mandated that the tax commissioner should call upon every person in their district who was subject to the tax, i.e., they owned personal property. The data to be gathered included the name of every free male more than 21 years of age who was subject to the tax. The commissioner was to call upon the people at their home. He was also to note the number of white males between 16 and 21. The law was repealed in the fall of 1787 and so the type of data collected that year is unique.
In the original data, the information was arranged in two ways. First, it was given in an approximate alphabetical order. Second, it was arranged by the date that the commissioner called upon people. This second list shows the neighbors since the commissioner was apt to call upon people in the same area on the same day. From day to day, the commissioner did not travel far.
In 1787, Culpeper Co., VA consisted of the three modern counties, Culpeper, Madison and Rappahannock. Three commissioners took the data and their respective areas correspond, at least approximately, to the modern counties. Even more interesting is the fact that one can approximately identify the neighborhoods that the commissioners were in on each day.
A sample will show the information that was taken. Henry Aylor, Sr. had no white males aged 16 to 21 in his household, but he had three blacks more than 16 years and six blacks less than 16 years. He had six horses and eight cows. Three other Aylors are in the list, Henry, Jr., Abram whose tithe was paid by Henry Aylor, Sr., (he had no property himself), and Jacob. The commissioner visited all four of the men on April 13 and the physical area is close to Haywood. Other Germanna names that the commissioner visited on this day include Daniel Lipp, Henry Lipp, Benjamin Rowe, Jesse Wilhoit and Tobias Wilhoit.
Fortunately, Netti Schreiner-Yantis and Florene Love have published this " 1787 Census of Virginia " as a series of booklets, one per county. In 1787, Virginia included also most of today's Kentucky and West Virginia. If you are studying the community, the books are a necessity. If I am asked if I have heard of a name in this time frame, I consult this census. Sometimes the information is helpful, sometimes not. It is a fast way of getting a look.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.