Posted with permission.

PA Supply Taxes

Many of the supply taxes have been published in the “Pennsylvania Archives” series. However, not all tax lists published in these series are considered supply taxes (DAR Genealogy Guidelines, p 97).  
Sometimes, the published list is a supply tax, but is not labeled as such in the book. And for some counties, not all of the supply tax lists are included in the published “Pennsylvania Archives” either.  
This document tells you where to find PA Supply Tax lists and how to cite them on your DAR applications.

Where to Find PA Tax Lists Online

Generally, Pennsylvania collected supply taxes during Revolutionary War years 1779-1783.  Most are available in the “Pennsylvania Archives” or in the “Pennsylvania, Tax and Exoneration 1768-1801” collection on ancestry.com

The “Pennsylvania Archives” are available on fold3.com. They are included as one of their free collections. You will likely need to create an account and log in with an e-mail address and password, but access to the “Pennsylvania Archives” on the fold3.com site does not require any payment. Tax lists are included in Pennsylvania Archives Series 3.

The “Pennsylvania, Tax and Exoneration 1768-1801” collection on ancestry.com is part of their subscription service. 
Many libraries offer access to Ancestry.com Library Edition free of charge to their patrons. 
In addition, Pennsylvania residents can access the collection for free via the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission Portal by going to the web address below and entering their zip code.
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/research_topics/3162/ancestry_com_pennsylvania/1575348

Is the list for a Supply Tax?

Many of the lists published in the “Pennsylvania Archives” are labeled as Supply Taxes. 
Some of the lists published in the “Pennsylvania Archives” and in ancestry’s “Pennsylvania, Tax and Exoneration” collection are Supply Taxes but do not include a “Supply Tax” label on every page of the list itself.
In these cases, refer to the webpage http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/ys/rg4ys.htm 
To locate the information about the supply taxes on the webpage, search on the text:

     {series #4.61}    OR      Tax and Exoneration Lists, l762-1794


to jump to the section on tax lists for the Revolutionary War period.  The information is organized first alphabetically by county, then by tax year.

If the list for a particular year was published in the “Pennsylvania Archives” the reference will be included.  For example the notation   PA (3)XXII, l59-20l  is for Pennsylvania Archives, Series 3, Volume 22, pages 159-201.

If the list for a particular year does not include a notation referring to the “Pennsylvania Archives” then it is likely included in the ancestry.com “Pennsylvania, Tax and Exoneration 1768-1801” collection.

There is some overlap between the lists published in the “Pennsylvania Archives” and the “Pennsylvania, Tax and Exoneration” on ancestry. 
The lists on ancestry appear to have been created in the 18^th Century and were likely the original lists used to compile those printed in the “Pennsylvania Archives” books.

However, not all of these original lists now on ancestry were included in the “Pennsylvania Archives” so it is possible that ancestry has more lists than is published in the “Pennsylvania Archives” books.

In some years, there was more than one supply tax collected.  When this happens, the 2^nd tax list for that year is usually designated as the Additional Supply Tax. 
This may be why you see your patriot ancestor’s name on two different tax lists for the same year.

Remember, only those lists which are designated as Supply Taxes count for DAR Patriotic Service. And the list has to show that the person paid the tax. 
When you find a name, double check that it’s not on an exoneration list.

How Supply Tax citations appear in GRS

For those lists found in the published “Pennsylvania Archives” you need the series, volume and page.

For example, here’s the reference for patriot Duncan Cameron for paying the Supply Tax in 1779 in Armach Twp, Cumberland Co, PA:   PA ARCH, 3RD SER, VOL 20, P 129

For those lists found in ancestry.com “Pennsylvania, Tax and Exoneration 1768-1801” the citation is from the original data source and you will need the microfilm roll number.  
Here’s the reference as it appears in GRS for patriot Conrad Edelman, for paying the Supply Tax in 1781 in Forks Twp, Northampton Co, PA:  HIST & MUS COMM, RG 4.61, ROLL #331

The microfilm roll number is included with the Source Citation of the record detail information on ancestry.com.  The roll number is underlined in red in the image below. The record in the example is for the same patriot Conrad Edelman.