I’m Too Tired to Do My Job, So I’ll Just Invent the Report

All genealogists know that census records are to be used with caution. Sometimes the records are golden and give corroboration to every other record out there. But sometimes they are amazingly wrong. Astoundingly wrong. 

In District 17 of Madison County, Tennessee, the three Whitenton brothers (also spelled Whittington or Whittenton) were George, Solomon, and Othaneil, and their farms were bordered by neighbors who had, like them, been in place for several decades when the U.S. Federal Census of 1860 was taken. They were counted by an enumerator who came around to their farms, spoke to someone supposedly responsible, and listed on a form with each person’s name, age, gender, birthplace, and sometimes occupation written out. The 1860 forms show these families in detail that matches all the family information and other records we have on them. The 1860 census is the golden one.

The 1850 and 1880 censuses are also extremely helpful in proving the picture of these families. 

But in 1870 the census taker in District 17 of Madison County, Tennessee was too lazy to get out and actually talk to the people he was supposed to be enumerating. Either that or all three Whittington families unaccountably were away from their farms in mid-June (highly unlikely) and the enumerator talked to the neighbors, or he was a Yankee sympathizer who was afraid to go out to those staunchly Rebel families and instead simply said, “Aw, them Whittintons, they got passels o’ chillen on down the line, all of ‘em.” And then he made it all up. 

Whatever happened, he definitely was inventive. For example, George’s family was headed by his widow, Martha Elizabeth, because George had died in 1867. The census taker, seeing “M. Whittington” as the head of the family on the list of families to contact, decided that this must be the man of the house and invented a wife two years younger, and then some logically spaced children for the household. And so on.

Here are the lists of actual household members and the census taker’s invented data:

George.

Martha Eliz.	44	F		M Whittington	42	M
				LJ Whittington	40	F
James M	(married and gone)
Mary Frances	(married and gone)
Thadeus Erastus	20	M		Wm. Whittington	19	M
Coley Horace	18	M		Wash. Whittington	18	M
Lucius Edward	17	M		A. Whittington	16	M
Jennie Elizabeth	14	F		N. Whittington	15	F
George Quintilian	12	M		F. Whittington	14	F
Wm Louis Yancy	8	M		T. Whittington	13	F
Robert Lee	6	M		F. Whittington	12	F
Alethia P Ann	4	F		N. Whittington	10	M

Solomon.

Solomon Y	57	M		S. Whittington	41	M
Mary A	50	F		N. Whittington	39	F
Valerie Jane	19	F
William	17	M		E. Whittington	16	F
Mary Ann	16	F		A. Whittington	14	M
Frances Elizabeth	15	F		T. Whittington	13	M
Mary Jane	13	F		S. Whittington	12	F
Jos Laney	10	F		J. Whittington	10	M
Thomas Jabe	8	M		B. Whittington	8	M
Bedford Forrest	6	M		L. Whittington	4	F

Othaneil.

Othnell	55	M		O.W. Whittington	48	M
Christina R	36	F		L. Whittington	43	F
James Arthur	12	M		E. Whittington	18	F
Martha Ellen	8	F		A. Whittington	16	M
Frances E	5	F		J. Whittington	15	M
				D. Whittington	13	F
				N. Whittington	9	F

And the Award for Best Fiction of 1870 goes to G.E. Green, Assistant Marshall for Madison County, Tennessee.

*****
Source:
1870 United States Federal Census; District 17, Madison, Tennessee; NARA Roll: M593_1545; Pages: 375A, 375B, 384A, 384B; Images: 757, 758, 775, 776; Family History Library Film: 553044.
Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com