How Much Was Your Ancestor Worth?

When we see a reference to how much something cost "back in the old days," it's easy to marvel at how cheap it was. But that doesn't take into account how much things cost compared to wages. So how can we tell just how much our ancestor was worth (financially)? There are some ways we can gauge the wealth of people back in the day.

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Generations Cafe Podcast, Episode 18

You can listen to this episode by clicking the play button below. (You can also listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and most other podcast apps.)
Length: 18 minutes.

Finding Financial Data

Most of us don't have profit and loss statements for our ancestors, but there are records that can give a general sense of their assets (and sometimes their debts). 

1850-1870 Federal Census. In 1850, the Federal census asked for the amount of real estate a person owned. (This covered immovable objects like land, houses, and barns). In 1860 and 1870, the census also asked for the amount of personal property a person owned. (This would be things like livestock, household goods, carriages, etc.) 

1860 Federal Census, Windsor Twp, Lawrence Co., Ohio. Image courtesy FamilySearch.

Notice that not only was Eber Johnson's property values listed, but so was his unmarried sister Elizabeth's. 

The property values listed on the census should be taken as estimates. The person talking to the enumerator might not have known or they might not have stated accurate amounts. 

Probate Records. Part of the probate process was an accounting of the assets of the deceased. Look for this inventory as part of the probate packet. It will list the assets by name and the value assigned by the assessor. 

Tax Records. There are generally two types of tax records: real property and personal property, sometimes called "chattel." Be careful reading the lists. Some will list both the property value and the tax assessed, other will only list the tax. 

How Much Is That Today?

Having some data on your ancestor's assets is one thing, but what does that data mean? I could look at Eber Johnson's $1,600 worth of real estate and say, "Wow, that's a lot," but was it? 

One way to understand that value is to convert those historical dollars into today's dollars. Such converters adjust for inflation and other factors to try to make the "old" dollars and the "current" dollars equivalent. 

The easiest historical value converter that I've found is WolframAlpha. If I want to get a better sense of Eber Johnson's $1,600, I can go to WolframAlpha and enter "How much is $1600 in 1860 worth today?" (The answer: $50,870. It doesn't look like my great-great-grandfather had all that much real estate.)

Putting That Value Into Context

The downside to using a historical value converter is that it's based on national averages. The problem is that value and purchasing power can vary widely from location to location; different places have different costs of living. It's more expensive to live in San Francisco than in Fargo, North Dakota or Cleveland, Ohio. (In 2017, SmartAsset compared real estate prices across the U.S. and found that, on average, a house in Detroit went for $35.08/square foot. Houses in San Francisco averaged $902.42/square foot. Yeah, it's more expensive to live in SF.)

So how can we put our ancestor's wealth in context with his location? Newspapers, census records, and tax records.

Look at newspapers for that location and time period for want ads (showing the pay), classified ads, and sales. These will give you a good idea of the relative cost of items. 

Read the tax records not only for your ancestor, but also for other people in the township. Compare his or her tax assessment to the neighbors'. Where does it fall? If his tax assessment was higher than his neighbors', that means that he had more valuable property than they did. 

If I'm looking at the 1850-1870 time period, I go back to the census and collect the data for the heads of household a few pages on either side of my ancestor. (If I'm feeling really ambitious, I'll tackle the whole township.) This helps me to see where my ancestor stood in relation to his neighbors.

Eber Johnson lived in Windsor Township, Lawrence County, Ohio in 1860. I looked at the heads of household on his page, plus 3 pages before and 3 pages after. That gave me 45 heads of household. Their averages: $1,136.66 in real property and $360.60 in personal property. There were also some clear groupings in real property:

  • 13 had no real property
  • 11 had between $200-$800
  • 12 had between $1,000 and $1,600
  • 8 had between $2,000 and $3,000
  • 1 had $12,000

So Eber's $1,600 in real property doesn't translate to a lot by today's standards (about $50,000), but it put him near the upper end of the middle class for his neighborhood. 

It's also interesting to do this for a period of years if your ancestor stayed in one location. Comparing property values before and after the Civil War can be eyeopening, both in the north and in the south. 

Conclusion

We spend a lot of time looking at the names in records. With a little bit of digging, we can also use the numbers in those records to help give a fuller picture of our ancestors.

Posted: January 24, 2019.

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  • Hi Amy – Just wanted you to know I requested your 6 Sources to Build Your Ancestor’s FAN Club and never received a confirmation email. Submitted my request again and again no confirmation email. Nothing has appeared in my spam or junk mail folder either. Just thought you might want to know…Thank You for all the work you do! Sarah

  • My maternal grandmother’s brother started writing his life story. When he was 17 he got a job (in BC, Canada) doing road work (pick & shovel), the pay was $3.75 for an 8 hr. day. This was 1923. Later the same year he had another job repairing part of a railroad line… the pay $2.40 per day (for 8 hours of back breaking work)

    • Thank you for the interesting article. I found an ancestor on a 1790 tax record which listed the construction materials of their home. They were taxed on the number of windows. It was fun to find out that my ancestor had the only stone home on their page (and one preceding and after) and had 10 windows! All other homes were of log construction with 1 or 2 windows.

  • Really interesting read Amy. I am Australian but can translate your information to local websites that help with conversion of moneys. Thank you – this is not something that I had given a lot of thought to, but it does give another layer to my research.

    • Glad it helps! The specific records will be different for Australian research, but the concepts still hold.

  • Amy – Farm land in 1850 for $5.00 an acre is going for $12,000 per acre in some parts of my home state and our original farm.

    • I’ve seen the same thing here. If only we had a time machine and could buy all of that land!

  • Great post Amy! The information is really useful in researching my Virginia ancestors as I can compare the values of their personal and real estate before and after the Civil War. Many had high values before the War as slaves were counted as property. After the War, their values dropped considerably. For example, my 3x great grandfather in 1860 before the War had a real estate value of $3000 ( About $80,000 today) and personal estate of $11,000 ( about $328-400,000 today). After the War, his real estate dropped to $2000 ($32,000) and personal estate dropped to $550 ($9,000). These figures showed me how truly devastating and life changing the Civil War was to my ancestors. I am going to go back and make comparisons with his neighbors before and after the war and do some tax research. Thank you for all the great suggestions! Love your posts!

  • Sweet idea!
    Our son, who is about sixty now, told my Mother, when he was little that they must not be very rich because their peanut butter jar was so small! There are so many ways to determine $! I have found that many people have more $
    Than sense’ ! Have a great day and keep up the great work!

  • As you know, the 1870 Census was the first to identify formerly enslaved ancestors. My 3rd great-uncle shows he has $200 dollars in personal estate. The planter, on whose property he was employed, had $1200. There are 2 other blacks that also have $200 and another white planter whose has $600. I have always wondered what could that mean in the South in Louisiana.

  • I’ve found that when I spot an ancestor who owns property, especially when their occupation involves making something , there is a good chance he (or she) will show up on the Non-population schedules with a lot of interesting information. For example the 1850 “Products of Industry” asked for monthly wages of both male and female employees.

  • I agree that it is necessary to have a perspective. In 1966 my monthly salary as an RN was $372.00 but rent for our 2 bedroom apartment was $105.00 plus $35.00 for furniture. 3 of us shared the apartment and the rent so we had quite a bit of money left over.

  • Very interesting perspective. I’ve usually just glossed over those census figures. I’ll pay more attention! Another thing I’ve found in old newspapers is the compensation paid by cities for doing city work. Not very much! But the work paid for gave me more insight into what my ancestor did to earn money.

  • Very interesting podcast, Amy! I will be checking out WolframAlpha as I go through my census records to put it into context. Thanks for the link! Oh, and speaking of links, if you set your links to go to a new or blank page, we don’t have to leave your site.