from George G. Morgan
Land and property records are among the most numerous of all documents in the U.S. and can provide genealogists with great information. Between censuses, tax rolls can confirm the presence of your land-owning ancestors at a particular place and time. The addition of an ancestor to the tax rolls indicates he or she arrived or purchased property in the area within the previous twelve to twenty-four months, while his or her disappearance from the rolls may indicate a property sale and/or a move from the area. In any event, tax records can point you toward other land and property records.