Relatively Speaking Blog

Although the United States Census is a useful means to gather information about families, the recorded information could contain misspelled or inaccurate names, age differences—sometimes drastic—from one census to the next, misidentified gender or misattributed relationships between household members.  This is one reason researchers do not take the census data as fact until other documents have been located to validate the enumerated information.

Comparing several years of census records provides a better depiction of a family and its details.  Looking through census enumerations, my 2^nd great grandfather Henry Swank was easily located in the 1860 census in Franklin Township, Lycoming County PA.  This was the first census Henry appeared with his wife Matilda and their young family.  Henry was a laborer and had a respectable $300 in real estate and $50 in personal estate.  Henry and Matilda were 27 and 24 years old, respectively.  However, their death records stated both were born in 1830, which would make them about 30 years old, rather than their recorded ages.  Their oldest child George was listed as 9 years of age; other enumerations indicate his birth year was about 1854.  If reviewing only this census, one might conclude Henry and Matilda married about 1850-1851 at a very young age, but later ones indicate otherwise.

1860 census Franklin Township, Lycoming County PA
Name	Age	Occupation	Place of Birth
Henry Swank	27	Laborer	PA
Matilda Swank	24		PA
George C. Swank	9		PA
Mary E. Swank	7		PA
Charles W. Swank	4		PA
Jonas Swank	1/12		PA

Identifying Henry in an earlier census had not been as effortless.  According to his death record, Henry was born February 6, 1830 to Jonas and Sarah Swank.  At just a few months of age, the 1830 census would be the first in which Henry would be enumerated.  Sarah Swank was listed as the head of the household in Penn Township, Lycoming County for the 1830 census.  She was between 30-40 years of age with two children under the age of five, one male and one female—presumably Henry and his sister Mary Ann.  Since Sarah is listed as the household head, Henry’s father Jonas apparently died sometime shortly before the 1830 census, leaving Sarah a widow.

The 1840 census was the last census to only list the head of the household’s name with tick marks for others living in the household.  When searching for Sarah Swank in the 1840 census, she was not found.  A few years ago it was discovered that Sarah had remarried sometime in the 1830s to a Mr. Leland.  In 1840, in the vicinity where Sarah had lived ten years earlier, David Leland was enumerated in Davidson Township, Lycoming County.  He was an older man between 70-80 years of age.  In addition to a female child under the age of 5, there was also a female 40-50, one male and one female 10-15.  These ages align with Sarah and her two children, Henry and Mary Ann, making it highly likely this was the teenage Henry, living with his step-father, David Leland; but further documents are needed to definitively prove this theory.

For many years family members searched for Henry Swank in the 1850 census, the first census to list all members of the household by name.  Henry Swank never turned up in the search results or indexes.  After the knowledge of Sarah’s 2^nd marriage, a distant cousin stumbled upon Sarah Laland, age 52, in the 1850 census living in Davidson Township, Sullivan County, which was newly formed in 1847 from Lycoming County.  Sarah probably had not moved since the previous census, but the county line changed around her.  She was a few doors down from Mary Ann Swank, and Sarah’s household had three other Lalands:  Henry, 21, who was a farmer; Sharlott, 11; and Joshua, 11.

Instead of Henry Swank, he was listed with the surname of his mother’s second husband, which explained why it had previously been so difficult to locate him in the 1850 census.  His step-father appears to have died, but Henry now had two half-sisters Sharlott, or Charlotte, and Jerusha, who was incorrectly recorded as a male Joshua.  Both of his sisters were listed as 11 years old, and one might suspect they were twins.  However, in 1840 there was only one female under the age of 5 in the Leland household, which implies that one of his sisters was born after 1840.  Using these ages as a general timeframe of their birth year have aided in finding other documents that confirmed their different birth dates.

Although Henry lived in Franklin Township, Lycoming County in 1860, by the next census he was back in Davidson Township, Sullivan County.  His mother had died in 1869 and she bequeathed property to Henry and Mary Ann.  In 1870 Mary Ann and Henry were listed beside each other, probably residing on their inherited property.  His inheritance may have contributed to his return to farming, perhaps because he now had more land.  In addition, his value in real estate tripled to $1000 and his personal estate increased significantly to $600.  During the 1860s his family also grew as Matilda bore three more children, daughter Christina, who was marked as male and listed as Christian, Thomas and Caroline.

1870 census Franklin Township, Lycoming County PA
Name	Age	Occupation	Place of Birth
Henry Swank	41	farmer	PA
Matilda Swank	40		PA
George C. Swank	16		PA
Mary H. Swank	14		PA
Charles W. Swank	12		PA
Jonas Swank	9		PA
Christian Swank	7		PA
Thomas D. Swank	2		PA
Caroline Swank	5/12		PA

By the 1880 census several of Henry’s older children had left his house to marry and raise their own families.  The age comparison of the family members from the previous ten years is now more consistent.  Henry continued to be a farmer and the family expanded with two more daughters born during the 1870s.  Among the six children still at home, Charles at age 22 and Christa at age 18 were the oldest.  Living nearby was the Josiah Reese family who over the next few years would become united to the Swank family.  Milton Reese wed Christa and a couple years later Sarah Reese became Charles’ wife, turning neighbors into family.

The last census that Henry and Matilda would appear was 1900.  They remained in Davidson Township and now Henry was a land surveyor nine months out of the year.  They were married 46 years, putting their marriage date about 1853-54, rather than the 1851 estimation of the 1860 census.  This census also confirmed they were born in 1830.  Matilda was the mother of 9 children, and all of her children were living in 1900.  Several of their married daughters were near them:  Cora, Adelia, and Christie.  Henry would die in 1901, just five days shy of his 71^st birthday and Matilda followed him a little over a year later in June 1902.  They are both buried in Stoneheap cemetery.

1900 census Davidson Township, Sullivan County, PA
Name	Relationship to head of household	Age	Born	Years Married	Mother of how many children born	Number of children now living	Occupation
Henry Swank	Head	70	Feb 1830	46			surveyor (land)
Matilda Swank	wife	70	Apr 1830	46	9	9

Although there were some inconsistencies recorded in the census for Henry Swank and his family, combined with research the census has been a helpful tool in filling in some gaps, especially during his younger years.  Around the time when Henry was born, his father died, leaving his mother to raise him and his sister.  He did have a step-father, at least for a few years, until his mother was again widowed and the care of the family fell to her.  As Henry did not stray far from his origins, it suggests that he felt a close connection to his family.  He lived mostly in Sullivan County, or just across the border in Lycoming County.  Visiting those areas has been productive in finding courthouses documents that provided greater details about Henry’s life and established he indeed was a successful man in the communities where he resided.