Strange mix of ages in this household

+3 votes
146 views

I am certain that my maternal great-great grandmother was named Martha Lutes. I have created her: here Lutes-593.

Source was 1850 census. In the household was

Head: Jasper Lutes , M35 
Elizabeth Lutes, F54
Martha Lutes, F15
Jasper Lutes M22
Willington Lutes, M21
Nelson Lutes, M19

My first assumption was Jasper Lutes was a widower living with his mother Elizabeth. But That would mean he had Jasper (Jr.?) at age 13. Seems unlikely. 

Perhaps Elizabeth was a widow and Jasper, (Sr.?) mother. But two boys named Jasper? And a 20-year childbearing range. Nope.

Any ideas

in Genealogy Help by Rick Pokrajen-Harmon G2G Crew (970 points)
That census is used on Ancestry as young Jasper being the son of Joseph Lutes and Elizabeth Evans. Perhaps the older Jasper is Joseph’s brother?
Aha! That makes sense. Thanks for the info from ancestry.com. I am not a member.

1 Answer

+1 vote
There are so many options if no relationships are given that it is all speculation. Are they enumerated in random order or in order they movd in?

Elizabeth could be Jasper's mother, or aunt. Martha Lutes could be Jasper's daughter, but could also be Elizabeth's daughter (she'd have been 39, which is possible). Jasper, Willington and Nelson could all be Elizabeth's children, but they could also be Jasper's siblings (as, incidentally, could be Martha). Jasper (the younger) could be a cousing, while the rest are siblings. Added to that, not all of the Lutes in this list (excluding Elizabeth) need to be from the same mother. If the father of Jasper remarried after his mother died, he could've had half-siblings (one whom might have been named Jasper because of naming conventions that point to wife #2's family) that are still named Lutes.

All in all, with just one record and no more information, it's going to be impossible to try and determine how these people are related. Your best bet would be to try and find all of them in more than just this record and then combine that information to form a hypothesis. Or maybe more records will give you the answer you're looking for.
by J. Mulder G2G6 Mach 2 (25.9k points)

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