The 1900 and 1910 US Census asks females the number of children they have had and how many of those children are living. These answers were not “backed up” by anything other than the respondent’s memory, but in many cases are accurate. Don’t forget to check for this information for any female relative living in the US during this time period.
2 Responses
Well I never thought of the actual response to that question. Makes me think of possible answers one might answer these days in a census.
I use that column to see if the number of “alive” children are shown in the household or if I need to look for other children – married, etc. If the two numbers differ, then I need to look for a death certificate and also go back to the previous census to get a child’s name.