Elgin County, Ontario, Canada
Historic Assessment Rolls, Collector’s Rolls & Voters’ Lists
Assessment rolls are a valuable source for tracing the movements of your ancestor or relative. They are especially important when tracing people who were tenants on a property, since Land Registry Office records generally do not record tenants. Assessment rolls are also valuable for determining the earliest date of location on a particular property since the date of registration of a deed occurred sometimes several years after the person had actually settled there.
Information for an assessment roll was gathered for municipal taxation purposes; therefore the statistics found in these records will have little genealogical content. Information you can expect to find are the person’s name, designation as owner or tenant; lot and concession (street address for urban areas), number of acres, value of property, and the amount of tax assessed. Occupations and ages are often also given. For women, marital status is often recorded.
Many of the Assessment Rolls also contain the accompanying Collectors Rolls. The Collectors Rolls were used by the tax collectors to record payment of taxes. They contain most of the same information from the Assessment roll. The collection of Collectors Rolls is not complete, and may be found on the same microfilm reel as the Assessment Rolls. Where an Assessment Roll does not exist, the Collectors Roll can be used as a replacement, since much of the same information is included.
The Elgin County Archives has an extensive collection of these assessment rolls on microfilm. Some original rolls are housed at the Elgin County Archives, and others at Municipal Offices.
Aldborough Township
Dunwich Township
Southwold Township
1841 Assessment Roll
1848 Assessment Roll
1873 Collectors Roll
Elgin County Assessment Films
Images now on FamilySearch
Townships
Aldborough
Aldborough Assessment rolls, 1859-1899
Aldborough Collector’s rolls, 1873-1893
Bayham
Bayham Township Assessment rolls, 1858-1912
Dunwich
Dunwich Township Assessment rolls, 1861-1898
Dunwich Township Collector’s rolls, 1880, 1889, 1899
Malahide
Malahide Township Assessment rolls, 1859-1912
(Includes Aylmer from 1859-1871)
Assessment rolls on microfilm for Malahide and Aylmer are available at the Aylmer Old Towne Hall Library up to 1929.
South Dorchester
South Dorchester Assessment rolls, 1858-1899
South Dorchester Collector’s rolls, 1877, 1890
Southwold
Southwold Assessment rolls, 1856-1899
Southwold Collector’s rolls, 1858, 1864, 1877, 1899
Yarmouth
Yarmouth Assessment rolls, 1857-1912
(Includes Port Stanley 1857-1874)
Yarmouth Collector’s roll, 1856
Towns
Aylmer
Aylmer Assessment rolls, 1872-1899
Aylmer Collector’s rolls, 1878, 1885
Port Stanley
Port Stanley Assessment rolls, 1875-1912
St. Thomas
St. Thomas Assessment rolls, 1856-1900
St. Thomas Collector’s rolls, 1856, 1857
Vienna