How
old was Tabitha Turner when
she married Henry Haynes and
took over his nine children?
What
woman would marry a farmer
with NINE children?
When was "Tabby"
born?
|
In May 1784, recently
widowed Henry Haynes of Bedford
County, VA, with nine children
to raise, married Tabitha Turner,
his wife’s first cousin.
Question: How old was Tabby
when she married Henry?
This question
can be solved using the census
entries for Henry and Tabitha.
The CensusMate timeline format makes it
easy to analyze those difficult
pre-1850 census data.
1. Start
with the 1810 census data;
2. Add
the 1820 census data;
3. Add
the 1830 census data.
|
1.
Start with the 1810 census data
|
 |
| |
1810 data easily show
Tabby was born between 1765
and 1784
|
|
2.
Add the1820 Census Data
|
| |
Henry
Haynes died in 1816, so
the family is listed in
1820
with his widow Tabitha
as the head of the household.
Align the family's 1820
listing with the 1810
listing
|
|
 |
|
| |
When we combine
the 1810 and 1820 data, the
dates narrow.
Now it’s
easy to see she was born between
1765 and 1775.
In
1810, Tabitha was listed as
"26 to 44." The year
scale above the table shows
she was born in the nineteen
year period before 1784, and
after 1765. In 1820,
she is listed as "Over
45," that is born before
1775. If both are true, she
was born in the ten year period
1766 to 1775.
|
| |
3.
Add the 1830 Census Data
|
| Now
add the 1830 data |
Continuing
in a similar way, we can now
add the 1830 data for Tabby
who is now living alone. The
children have all moved out,
probably into their own homes.
The
age categories were changed
again for the 1830 census, expanded
to 12 age ranges. Trying to
work with these changing categories
has been difficult for genealogists,
but becomes easy working with
this graphical format.
|
 |
| Tabitha
is not listed in the 1840 census
for Bedford County. |
These
data further narrow the range for Tabby’s birth year to
the years from 1765 to 1770. So by plotting the census
data for 1810 to 1830 in this graphical way, we can see
at a glance that Tabby must have been born in the relatively
narrow range of five years.
From Bedford
County records, we know that Tabitha died in 1846. Nevertheless,
she does not appear in the 1840 census. She would have
been in her early to mid 70's, so it's likely she moved
in with relatives or friends.
We also see in the 1830
census that the children have all left home -- Tabitha
is living alone. We now go back and identify those unknown
children. See the example
Identify the children.
|
