04/05/2023
Land Tax Book Project Complete!
Dinwiddie’s Land Tax Books are now in an easily searchable format online, https://us4.courthousecomputersystems.com/DinwiddieVA_MVC/
The information recorded in the land tax records are an alphabetical list of the names of persons owning land or town lots, the quantity of land owned, the value of the land or lots, and the amount of tax owed by year. Land owned by African Americans began to be listed separately within each district in 1891. Preprinted pages were marked “white” and “colored.” The distinction remained through the mid-twentieth century.
Benefits of having the land tax records online.
1. The Land Tax Books can be used as an additional source of land ownership, especially for a lost records county like Dinwiddie. The Union troops ransacked the courthouse during the last months of the Civil War and stole, mutilated, and/or destroyed the land records. The deeds start in 1833 and anything prior to that would be found in the Land Tax Books.
2. The Land Tax Books can help date structures. Beginning in 1820 and continuing thereafter, a column was added to the tax list for “Sum added to land on account of buildings.” An increase in figures reported in this column from one year to the next may indicate the addition of a new building or improvements to an existing structure. Such information from the land tax records, used in conjunction with physical evidence from the structure itself and other evidence, may lead to conclusions about the period during which a structure was erected.
3. The Land Tax Books are used to help determine the cost basis for taxes. Since the land tax books have the assessed value of the property every year they can be used to determine your taxes basis.
4. The Land Tax Books can be used as an additional tool for genealogical research.
