Assessment rolls give a wealth of information
about Toronto citizens. Here, we see that labourer
Thomas Jeffery, aged 31, of 6 Northern Place, owned his
house ("F" stands for "freeholder," or owner). There were
six people in the family, and their religion was Anglican
("E" stands for "Church of England"). The Jeffreys'
neighbours, Scott Walter and his small family, rented their house
and were Methodists ("M"). The land on the other side of
the Jefferys was a vacant lot that had not yet been
assigned a street number. Series 612, Files 491 - 493, 1894
Assessment rolls, created for property tax collection, contain some or all of the following information: the name, occupation, salary, and religion of the "head of household" (usually male, although women appear when widowed or single); and the description, ownership, and assessed value of the property. An increase in property value from one year to the next can indicate the construction date of a building or addition, but if all properties show an increase in value, it may merely be an increase in the tax rate for the entire city.
Assessment rolls are available for the post-amalgamation City of Toronto, plus all six of the former
municipalities, and also for the municipalities that had previously been annexed
into them. The map "Municipal Structure 1867-1967" indentifies these
municipalities.
If your address was in the former City of Toronto, you must
first find out
the date when your address was annexed by the city, as assessment rolls for
your
address will start in that year. To do this, consult the multicoloured
map titled "Growth of the City of Toronto Through Annexations and Amalgamations."
To use the assessment rolls, find the research guide binder to the assessment
rolls for your municipality. The guide will show you how to identify and order
assessment rolls, and how to find information about your property in the assessment
rolls.
For current assessment information about your property, please see the Toronto
Property System database, available on a computer in the Research Hall. Please
feel free to ask the Reference Desk staff for help in using this database.
Learn more about current assessment rolls on the Registry Services website.
