Actually it appears that buildings below a certain value were not 
listed. The 1815 listing for building valuation set the limit as over 
$500. (These are found in the 1815 personal property taxes--not the land 
taxes--see earlier postings re this.) The problem is that surviving 
structures suggest that this criteria did not hold true in the listings 
in the land taxes beginning in 1820. I'm currently working on a project 
that involves using these lists and have consulted with an architectural 
historian who has worked with these taxes in a number of counties and 
has found the valuations to be very inconsistent between counties but 
fairly consistent within counties. I'm hopeful that a study of the 
reassessment lists and the laws requiring reassessment will provide 
additional information.

Barbara Vines Little, CG, FNGS, FVGS

PO Box 1273
Orange, VA 22960
[log in to unmask]
540-832-3473

CG, Certified Genealogist, is a service mark of the Board for 
Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board certified 
genealogists after periodic evaluation, and the board name is registered 
in the US Patent & Trademark Office.

On 5/30/2014 3:32 PM, Lyle E. Browning wrote:
> This is new terrain for me wherein there's direct proof for folks living in haystacks, i.e., no buildings listed on the LTR. I suppose one has to assume a standard deviation of error in tabulation of about 1% and live with the omissions. Ah well. This is my first 1% find.
>
> Thanks for the clarification.
>
> Lyle
>
>
>
> On May 30, 2014, at 2:08 PM, "Barbara Vines Little, CG, FNGS, FVGS" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Ditto marks are used by some commissioners as place markers in spaces that would otherwise be blank. However, these are usually easy to identify as such since they are typically placed in every space that would otherwise be blank. Be careful about assuming that there were no houses or buildings on property because the amount for buildings was left blank. If so, many of my ancestors apparently lived and raised their families in haystacks.
>>
>> Barbara Vines Little, CG, FNGS, FVGS
>>
>> PO Box 1273
>> Orange, VA 22960
>> [log in to unmask]
>> 540-832-3473
>>
>> CG, Certified Genealogist, is a service mark of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board certified genealogists after periodic evaluation, and the board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.
>>
>> On 5/30/2014 12:16 PM, Lyle E. Browning wrote:
>>> The ditto is under both. This is for Stafford County. I have a will that states that the daughter who has been living on a parcel with her husband, is to inherit it if she wishes to continue living there. That indicates a house on the property. But the ditto's appear instead of building values. The building value appears to be some dollars and cents figure so as the entries are alphabetical, I don't see that the dittos would mean identical building values. In the columns where there are distance and bearing from the courthouse and where there are alphabetical designations, then the ditto, as has been pointed out, makes sense, but not in the building values column. In other counties, the cell (if one looks at it like a spreadsheet), would be blank.
>>>
>>> Lyle Browning
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On May 30, 2014, at 11:31 AM, Lewis Burruss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> It is "ditto" meaning that the number is the same as the one above. (or the
>>>> word is the same as the word above the ")
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, May 22, 2014 at 6:22 PM, Lyle E. Browning <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> In reading the Land Tax Records, I often see " for several entries below a
>>>>> number. I have interpreted this as being an equals mark such that if the
>>>>> number equalled 1200, then the values for the buildings also equalled 1200.
>>>>> But I have also noted that there are entries for which there are no "
>>>>> listed. That brings up the issue of whether the " means equal to the value
>>>>> above or whether it means no buildings. Where there are no " marks in the
>>>>> column, I am working under the interpretation that it means no buildings.
>>>>>
>>>>> What's the standard interpretation for this little wrinkle?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> Lyle Browning
>>>>> ______________________________________
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