1850 Census - John and Mary Averett Family

David Franklin Averett (1837-1927) probably lived in Putnam County, Georgia with his parents and siblings at the time of the 1850 U.S. Federal Census. The census page shown below was completed on 14 September 1850 and the purpose of this post is to point out correlations between the John and Mary Averett family in this 1850 US Census and the John and May Averett family in the 1860 US Census that I documented on 16 November 2011. Based on these associations, which includes fairly consistent ages and names of children, I assess that these two families are, in fact, the same family.

(Click graphic to enlarge.)

Here is a transcription of the 1850 information relevant to David's family:

SCHEDULE I. -- Free Inhabitants in [unreadable] 70th District in the County of Putnam, State of Georgia, enumerated by me, on the 14th day of Sept 1850. L.H. Jackson, Ass't Marshal.


Column Headings:

1. Dwelling house numbered in the order of visitation.
2. Families numbered in the order of visitation.
3. The Name of every Person whose usual place of abode on the first day of June, 1850, was in this family.
4. Description: Age
5. Description: Sex
6. Description: Color: White, black, or mulatto.
7. Profession, Occupation, or trade of each Male Person over 15 years of age.
8. Value of Real Estate Owned.
9. Place of Birth, naming the State, Territory, or Country.
10. Married within the year.
11. Attended School within the year.
12. Persons over 20 y'rs of age who cannot read & write
13. Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict.

Lines in which the John and Mary Averett family appear:

• Line 22: Dwelling house = 180; Family = 180; Name = John Averett; Age = 41; Sex = Male; Color = Unmarked [which presumably means = white]; Occupation = Farmer; Value of Real Estate Owned = $900 [indistinct: could say $700 or $900]; Place of Birth = Ga. [Georgia]; Married within the year = no [unmarked]; Attended School within the year = no [unmarked]; Persons over 20 years of age who cannot read & write = no [unmarked]; Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict = no [unmarked]
• Line 23: Mary Averett; Age = 35; Sex = Female; Color = White [unmarked]; Place of Birth = Ga. [Georgia]; Attended School within the year = [unmarked]
• Line 24: Harris Averett; Age = 19; Sex = Male; Color = White [unmarked]; Occupation = Farmer; Place of Birth = Ga. [Georgia]; Attended School within the year = [unmarked]
• Line 25: Mary Averett; Age = 15[?]; Sex = Female; Color = White [unmarked]; Place of Birth = Ga. [Georgia]; Attended School within the year = yes [marked]
• Line 26: Catherine Averett; Age = 14; Sex = Female; Color = White [unmarked]; Place of Birth = Ga. [Georgia]; Attended School within the year = yes [marked]
• Line 27: David F. Averett; Age = 12; Sex = Male; Color = White [unmarked]; Place of Birth = Ga. [Georgia]; Attended School within the year = yes [unmarked]
• Line 28: Sarah M. Averett; Age = 9; Sex = Female; Color = White [unmarked]; Place of Birth = Ga. [Georgia]; Attended School within the year = no [unmarked]
• Line 29: I.J.L. Averett; Age = 7; Sex = Male; Color = White [unmarked]; Place of Birth = Ga. [Georgia]; Attended School within the year = no [unmarked]
• Line 30: Alvus Averett; Age = 5; Sex = Male; Color = White [unmarked]; Place of Birth = Ga. [Georgia]; Attended School within the year = no [unmarked]
• Line 31: Nancy Averett; Age = 3; Sex = Female; Color = White [unmarked]; Place of Birth = Ga. [Georgia]; Attended School within the year = no [unmarked]

By way of comparison, the following siblings of David F. Averett appear in the 1860 US Census:

• David F. Averett (age 12 years in 1850 and age 22 years in 1860)
• John L. Averett (named "I.J.L." and age 7 years in 1850 and age 17 years in 1860)
• Alvis E. Averett (named "Alvus" and age 9 years in 1850 and age 14 years in 1860) -- inconsistent ages
• Nancy L. Averett (age 5 years in 1850 and age 12 years in 1860) -- inconsistent ages
• Willson W. Averett (age 10 years in 1860)
• Romulus Averett (age 8 years in 1860)
• Rebecca Averett (age 6 years in 1860)
• Charles Averett (age 2 years in 1860)

Willson W. Averett (age 10 years in 1860) does not appear in this 1850 US Census, so he must have been born after 14 September 1850 (the day on which the Census form was completed). Romulus, Rebecca, and Charles would have been born after 1850.

So we see three very similar given names (David, Alvus/Alvis, and Nancy) and one somewhat similar name (I.J.L./John L.) for four of the children of John and Mary Averett. We see perfect age consistency for David and and John L. but we see not terribly good consistency in ages for Alvis and Nancy. But, from what I have seen over the past few years, the accuracy of data in census data is highly variable in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The census takers were probably being paid for how many names they collected, not how accurately they recorded the data. Human nature being what it is, laziness or impatience have not changed since then. They probably wrote down what they thought they heard and moved on. There may have been some kind of error checking in place, probably based on whether the managers of the census takers knew the families being interviewed, but it wouldn't have been much more than that. So I don't think the inconsistency in ages for Alvis and Nancy, by itself, necessarily proves the two families are not the same.

Next, the following siblings of David Averett appeared in the 1860 US Census but not in this 1850 US Census

• Harris Averett (would have been approximately 29 years old in 1860)
• Mary Averett (would have been approximately 25 years old in 1860)
• Catherine Averett (would have been approximately 24 years old in 1860)

All three of these children would have been more than old enough to marry in 1860. It is reasonable to assume that they either died at some point between the taking of the 1850 US Census and the taking of the 1860 US Census, or that they married and started their own family and resided in a separate household.

And, as a matter of fact, on line 26 of the 1860 U.S. Census, immediately following lines 16 through 25, which enumerated the members of the John and Mary Averett family, is one "Harris H. Averett", age 26 years (but not 29 years as would be expected based on the 1850 US Census), whose occupation was "mechanic" and who was born in Georgia. His wife, shown in line 27, was Malinda A. Averett, age 24 years and also born in Georgia. Their son, "Amona A. Averett, age 1 year, was born in Alabama. It seems reasonable that Harris might be the son of John Averett, although that would have to be further substantiated.

Parenthetically, since David Averett's occupation was shown as "mechanic" in the 1860 US Census, it is possible that he worked for or with his brother Harris.

Note to self: Look for Mary and Catherine in the 1860 US Census. It'll be tougher to find them if they married because they would have changed their surnames to reflect that of their husbands.''

Finally, because this 1850 Census was from Putnam County, Georgia, it may be relevant to point out that I found a marriage record for "John Averette" and "Mary Ledbetter" that occurred on 24 February 1830 in Putnam County, Georgia on the LDS FamilySearch.org web site:

If this is the right marriage record, I will have determined the maiden name of John Averett's wife, Mary (thus confirming what has been reported on other family trees found on Ancestry.com). But family trees on Ancestry.com and elsewhere on the Internet say a LOT of different things, much of which is incorrect. So I continue to be careful about concluding anything until I can confirm it with other sources, hopefully primary sources when available. So I am not ready to assess that Mary's surname was "Ledbetter" but if it was, the date of their marriage, 24 February 1830, would be consistent with the birth year of their first son, Harris. Harris was born about 1831 according to this 1850 US Census ("age 19 years").

I found the following graphic showing the location of Putnam County in Georgia from Wikipedia on 19 November 2011:

1860 US Census - John and Mary Averett Family

David Averett lived in Tallapoosa County, Alabama at the time of the 1860 U.S. Federal Census with his mother and father, along with his younger brothers and sisters. The census page shown below was completed on 22 June 1860, several months before the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States. That fateful electoral result led directly to the attempted secession of the southern states and life as he knew it must surely have been destroyed over the next five years, even if he hadn't enlisted in the Confederate Army. See my blog posts from 20 August 2011 and 3 September 2011 for more information about that.

I have three real purposes for the documentation represented by this posting. The first is to establish the names and ages of David's brothers and sisters living with the family in 1860. The second is to infer the time when the family moved from Georgia to Alabama based on the listed birth places of his siblings. And the third is to establish a baseline of names of his brothers and sisters to better evaluate a particular 1850 US Census sheet that I recently found. In other words, I'm trying to decide if this John and Mary Averett family in 1860 is the same John and Mary Averett family shown in that 1850 Census form. The name of his 14-year-old brother, Alvis E. Averett, should be particularly useful for this, owing to its relative uniqueness among census records that I have read over time. I will write more about the 1850 US Census in a subsequent blog post.

(Click graphic to enlarge.)

Here is a transcription of the 1860 information relevant to David's family:

Page 13. SCHEDULE 1. -- Free Inhabitants in Western Division ([unreadable] 8) in the County of Tallapoosa, State of Alabama, enumerated by me, on the 22nd day of June 1860, Y.T. [?] Strickland, Ass't Marshal. Post Office: Realtown. 

• Line 16: John Averett, age 37 years, male; his occupation was farmer; the value of his real estate was $500, the value of his personal estate was $400; he was born in Georgia; he was able to read and write.
• Line 17: Mary Averett, age 45 years, female, she was born in Georgia, she was able to read and write.
• Line 18: David F. Averett, age 22 years, male; his occupation was mechanic; he was born in Georgia; he had not attended school within the year; he was able to read and write.
• Line 19: John L. Averett, age 17 years, male; his occupation was farmer; he was born in Georgia; he had not attended school within the year.
• Line 20: Alvis E. Averett, age 14 years, male; he was born in Georgia; he had not attended school within the year.
• Line 21: Nancy L. Averett, age 12 years, female; she was born in Georgia; she had not attended school within the year.
• Line 22: Willson W. Averett, age 10 years, male; he was born in Georgia; he had not attended school within the year.
• Line 23: Romulus Averett, age 8 years, male; he was born in Alabama; he had not attended school within the year.
• Line 24: Rebecca Averett, age 6 years, female; she was born in Alabama; she had not attended school within the year.
• Line 25: Charles Averett, age 2 years, male; he was born in Alabama; he had not attended school within the year. 

Since Willson, age 10 years, was born in Georgia, and his younger brother, Romulus, age 8 years, was born in Alabama (as were Rebecca and Charles), it seems straightforward to conclude that the family moved from Georgia to Alabama sometime between 1850 and 1852, inclusive, assuming that Willson was born in 1850 and that Romulus was born in 1852. The reason for their move is currently unknown to me.

David's apparently worked as a mechanic, although both his father and his brother John L. Averett were farmers. I do not currently know what a mechanic did in 1860, decades before the appearance of the first automobiles. This is a question that I will investigate later. If newspapers from the area could be located, advertisements or simply "goings-on about town" news might be useful in further characterizing how David contributed to the family livelihood. They might also give further clues about what the political and social climates were with respect to the upcoming 1860 election. I have read that Lincoln's name did not even appear on the ballot of many southern states and I wonder if that implies a widespread condition of regional patriotism among the general population or merely a sense of disquiet among what we would today call "the elite".

Finally, where was Realtown, Alabama, the site of the closest Post Office to the farm owned by John Averett in 1860?  A Google search indicates that the spelling was probably "Reeltown" instead of "Realtown", which is in Tallapoosa County.  Here is where Reeltown is in Alabama, according to Google Maps. (Click to enlarge.)

Note the proximity of Reeltown to Tallassee. The name of Tallassee is familiar to me, being the place where:

• Alvis E. Averett enlisted in Company A, the Cantey Rifles, of the 15th Alabama Volunteer Infantry Regiment on 5 February 1864.
• A muster Roll dated 19 Jul 1861 for the "Tallassee Guards", The 13th Alabama Infantry, Company F, shows that a Private “Averett, John L. [died during the war]”. Is this the John L. Averett who was the brother of David?
• Was listed as the nearest Post Office for David Averett when he enlisted in the Army on 3 July 1861 (see again my blog post from 3 September 2011).

This may not be all. I seem to remember "Tallassee" among some of my other genealogy materials but cannot put my hands on them at this time. If I do find more, I will write again about this town. In any event, here is where Tallapoosa County is located in the state of Alabama, according to Wikipedia, viewed 16 November 2011.  Information and graphics found in Wikipedia are licensed for general use under the Creative Commons license, so I believe it is okay to reproduce this graphic here.