Real Property Tax Records

The chief fiscal officer for each county has custody of real property tax assessment rolls; most counties have these records commencing about 1850. The State Archives has available on microfilm Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates, 1799-1804 (B0950) for the whole state except New York County (Manhattan). The Archives also holds scattered tax assessment rolls and lists for some towns and districts in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys in the 1770s and '80s (series A1201, A3210, A3206); series A1201 and A3210 are available on microfilm through interlibrary loan. Many colonial tax rolls are published in Lists of Inhabitants of Colonial New York (Baltimore: 1979).