Working with pre-1850 US census records can be a challenge. It’s important to obtain as many other records on the family as possible when trying to determine who is in the household. The name listed as head of household is typically the oldest person of that gender listed, but there are exceptions.
The household may include an older parent. Children enumerated are most likely to be full siblings, half-siblings, or step siblings of each other, but there are exceptions. One of the children could be a niece or nephew by birth or marriage to the head of household–or a child they took in. It could also be that the head of household or their spouse has one of their siblings living with them and if the family was well off enough, they may have had a hired man or a housekeeper.
All you really know about that household in a pre-1850 census is that the person listed was the head of house hold and there were people indicated by those tally marks living there on that day.
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