William Sharp household, 1850 U.S. Census, Rising Sun, IN

This census enumeration follows a year after the marriage of William and Delia Sharp described in another post. The 1850 U.S. census does not explicitly give the relationships between members of the household. The sex recorded for Clarence on line 39 is flagged as a potential recording error.  Here, is the extract of the William Sharp household, lines 36 to 40...

Page	294A
Line	36	37	38	39	40
1.Dwelling	21
2.Family	22
3.Name	William Sharp	Delilah "	Sarah "	Clarence "	Joseph "
4.Age	37	25	13	10	8
5.Sex	M	F	F	F*	M
6.Color
7.Occupation	Carpenter
8.Value of Real Estate Owned	500
9.Birthplace	N. Jersey	Kentucky	Indiana	"	"
10.Married within year
11.Attended school			1	1	1
12.Cannot read or write
13.Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict

Reference Notes:

[1] 1850 U.S. census, Ohio County, Indiana, population schedule, City of Rising Sun, p.294A (stamped), 587 (penned), dwelling 21, family 22, William Sharp household; Family Quest Archives, M432-163, 1850 Indiana, CD-ROM, digital images (Bountiful, Utah: Heritage Quest, 2000); citing National Archives micro-film publication M432, roll 163.

[2] 1850 U.S. census, Ohio County, Indiana, population schedule, City of Rising Sun, p.294A (stamped), 587 (penned), dwelling 21, family 22, William Sharp household; digital image, Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 August 2012); citing National Archives micro-film publication M432, roll 163.

Commentary:

Assuming that Sarah, Clarence, and Joseph are William's children, he must have had an earlier marriage and mother for them. With Sarah born about 1837 in Indiana, that places William in Indiana (and probably Rising Sun) from at least 1837.

From the census page, the enumeration date was 1 August 1850 and the enumerator was John Tait, Jr. The family members listed reflect who was present on 1 June 1850 according to the 1850 enumeration instructions. For that reason, Perry C. Sharp, first child of Delilah and William, born 23 June 1850 is not shown on this census, although he should have been a member of the household on August 1.

This census was first viewed using source [1] in 2001. At that time there was uncertainty about the name of the child on line 39. Was the name "Clarence", a boy's name or was it something like "Clairice", a girl's name? The Ancestry.com display page for the image of the census (source [2]) decodes this name as "Clarence" but leaves the sex of the child blank (although it is clearly 'F' on the record).