Just One Document - The Family

In this post I will continue to analyze the one document we have for James and Nancy Phelps and their family.

The 1860 U.S. Census does not provided the relationship of each person living in the household to the head of the household. Most of the time we assume relationships based on surnames and ages. In this blog post I will discuss what can be learned about James Phelps who was living in Huntingdon, Carroll County, Tennessee during the 1860 census.

• ·       Family number 1446 included James Phelps, a male. He was sixty-seven years old. This information can be used to determine an approximate year of birth. In this case, James would have been born about 1793. With this information James Phelps should be listed in the 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, and 1850 censuses. At this point in time we do not know when he was married and therefore became a head of household.

• ·       He was a farmer.

• ·       The value of his real estate was given as $1000 and the value of his personal property was given as $800. This seems to be quite a substantial amount of real estate for 1860. There should be some kind of land transactions before and after 1860.

• ·       He was born in Virginia.

Other members of the household:

• ·       Nancy Phelps was sixty-one. She was born in Virginia. Based on her age and that she is listed directly under James Phelps, we assume Nancy is his wife. This information is consistent with the Phelps Family Bible page which states that James and Nancy Phelps were the parents of Henry Clay Phelps.

• ·       James Phelps, age thirty-four. He was born in Tennessee. The gives his approximate year of birth as 1834. Assuming this James is the son of James and Nancy we can conclude to a couple of things: 1) He may or may not be the first son born to James and Nancy. If he is the son of James and Nancy, their ages at the time of his birth would have been about twenty-three and nineteen, respectively. Certainly a possibility that he was their first son, especially since he was given the name of his father. If he was the first son, it can be implied that James and Nancy were married approximately 1834. Since this son was born in Tennessee, we do not know if James and Nancy were married in Virginia or Tennessee or some other place.

• ·       Henry Phelps, age seventeen. He was born in Tennessee. His occupation was given as “farm labor.”  This information is consistent with all other family records which states he was born in 1844 in Obion County, Tennessee. ( little variation exists in year of birth because of not knowing the exact date of birth. The census record is estimated). There is quite a gap in ages between James (the son) and Henry, indicating that most likely there were more children born to James and Nancy.

• ·       Elizabeth Phelps, age fifteen, was also born in Tennessee. The approximate year of birth for Elizabeth would have been about 1845.