Marital Status Expanded

The next question on the 1900 census asks about a person’s marital status, then how many years they have been married.  The instructions to enumerators explains the question refers to their present spouse, but the question as it is asked is rather vague, so be careful and make sure that was what was reported.  Pay attention to the number of years they have been married compared with the ages of their children.  If the couple had been married seven years but there is a fifteen-year-old child in the home, there was probably a previous marriage.  If it was a child of the head of household, then there would be no indication that they were stepchildren.

All a Mother’s Children

The next two columns require careful consideration.  The first asks how many children a mother had borne.  The instructions for the enumerators specify that this is all of her children, not just the ones for her marriage at that time.  When you see this number, compare it with the number of years she has been married.  A good rule of thumb for many women in the 19^th century is they gave birth every two years.  Compare the number of children with the number of years they have been married and see if the two make sense. 

Never, Ever Assume

Assuming that people only married once can lead to costly errors.  Especially in the 19^th century, people often remarried because husbands died in wars or from the dangers of living on the frontier.  Women were always in danger of dying in childbirth.  There were fatal diseases prevalent throughout the late 19^th century.  Any one of these reasons could create a condition where a person was married two or three times and had children with each marriage.

What Were They’re Lives Like?

The next column asks how many of these children are still alive.  This can tell you much about the woman’s living conditions.  If she has been a mother to eight children and only three of them were still alive, this might indicate that her living conditions were not healthy or she may have lived in a disease-prone area, like next to a swamp.  Perhaps the family was poor, and mother and the child were malnourished.  Many of our ancestors lived in unhealthy conditions and doctors were hours or even days away.

Like many other details given in the census, these columns can lead you to new discoveries about your ancestors that were not recorded elsewhere.  Slow down and read “between the lines” to uncover these secrets.  If time won’t allow you to pick apart these details, we’re here to help.  Contact us today and we will pick apart the records your ancestor left behind!