A few things to help make certain you’ve got the same family in those pre-1850 US census records where only heads of household are listed and household members are only enumerated in age categories:
•See if oldest male and female age appropriately
•Are locations consistent with what else known about family?
•Do children age appropriately?
A few additional things to keep in mind when analyzing these records:
•Household membership may be fluid
•People die
•Heads of household remarry
•People lie
2 Responses
Would having the neighbors the same be a good check? That is assuming they are in the same township.
I have a family that is said to have moved to “this area” with two other families. One of my “to do jobs” is to trace these three families from Ohio back to Pennsylvania.
The same neighbors would definitely be some good evidence that the reference was to the same person.