census taker error in spouses age forcing us to wait to create profiles?

Question

I was wanting but waiting to create a set of profiles, even though they appear to be unique, should I (or someone else following this set of Halls) create them, or wait for further info, and do we have a collective way of making a scratch space for profiles-in-waiting which several people may be working on at the same time?

Here is a family of profiles that I almost created (looking for my Halls), but this seems to be an error on the part of the census taker:  I've never seen a wife so much older than her husband.   Given that the Head of Household may be a newly freed Enslaved Person, there may not be a way to be sure that it is him in earlier records, until we find a document tying him to a plantation/institution/etc where he was held in bondage.   https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hall-47682#Sources

Comments

link to (U.S, 1880) census page image at FamilySearch.org:

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBD-34X?i=10&cc=1417683

edit: added italicized text for clarity

Also, I don't think we should presume that the census taker erred in recording the data. Nor should we presume that the data is incorrect.

edit 2: I created FamilySearch.org profiles for David and family: David Hall , in case anyone was interested.

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Oops, sorry I forgot to put the link in!  Thank you for adding it!  :-)

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Are you able to find the next census yer for David? When I create families from census records (this is what I'm doing with my St. Marks, SC project right now), I make little trees for them in Ancestry starting with what info is in the census. Then I search for additional sources for all of the family. I often can find the next census year at least if nothing else.

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Generally I do that, but on paper (mistake!), until I can find two or three sources that match, but in this case, I'm hitting 1870 and seeing wildly different family groups for this set of Halls, and none of the 1880 data seems to match correctly.  There are Halls in Baltimore, Annapolis, DC and Calvert county, and all use Charlotte, Sam, David, Ann, over and over again.  I've started to keep scratch boxes, like what you're doing on Ancestry, but I get an overwhelming number of hints that are wrong, so keeping track of it all is getting difficult.  I guess a sep. tree for each is an idea, but I already have 4 trees.

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And Hall is a very common name which stinks! I agree with Dave's suggestion below. Even if the info isn't completely correct, it can be corrected later and you know David and his family existed based on the source, which is what most matters.

For my project I have a different problem. Everyone has the same last names and may or may not be related to each other. So untangling and connecting them correctly will be fun :-)

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Ok, good to know!  Wow, have fun!

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Hi, Lindy:

  Thank you for the italics.  Normally I do not presume census taker error, and I do not ask the question lightly, nor without considerable comparison of data.   Since I have found two errors made by census takers in my family tree, one of which was rather glaring, and since data shows that my findings are not unusual (please consult P. 168 of https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9279156-freedom-s-port?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=ixbQh5gkVt&rank=1  Freedom's Port, by Dr. Christopher Phillips, among others), I reluctantly asked if this might be another census taker error.  It was not presumption, but thank you for reminding us not to take given data lightly.

Best regards,

Shira

Answer 1

I'd make the profiles with the information on hand, mark David's birth date as uncertain, describe the source of uncertainty in the bio and describe steps you've taken to research potential solutions to the uncertainties in the research notes. It's possible a solution is "just around the corner" but it seems unlikely.

Comments

Makes sense, thanks!

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I agree. Also, I have found a number of freedmen who married late in life and/or had wives several years older than they. In some places there was a large cost involved in getting married, so they had to save up money.

So, yes, just use what info you have and mark it uncertain and give a short explanation in the bio. It could be something like their birth dates seem unusual, but according to the census this is their ages.

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Excellent, thank you, Lucy!