Census Sunday - Charles B. Sharp household, 1900 U.S. Census, Taney Co., Mo.

The Charles B. Sharp household was enumerated in the city of Forsyth, Taney County, Missouri on 5 July 1900.^[1] Charles was accompanied by his wife Bertie. An extract of their census data, from lines 51 and 52, follows:

Page / Sheet	104-B (stamped) / 25-B (penned)
Line	51	52
In Cities: Street Name	Benton Street
In Cities: Street Number
1.Dwelling	497
2.Family	497
3.Name	Sharp, Charles B	-------, Bertie
4.Relationship of each person to the head of this family	Head	Wife
5.Color or race	W	W
6.Sex	M	F
7.Date of Birth - Month	Mar	May
7.Date of Birth - Year	1854	1863
8.Age at last birthday	46	37
9.Whether single, married, widowed, or divorced	M	M
10.Number of years married	20	20
11.Mother of how many children		0
12.Number of these children living		0
13.Place of birth of this person	Kentucky	Missouri
14.Place of birth of father of this person	Pennsylvania	Kentucky
15.Place of birth of mother of this person	Kentucky	Kentucky
16.Year of immigration to the United States
17.Number of years in the United States
18.Naturalization
19.Occupation	Lawyer
20.Months not employed	0
21.Attended school (in months)
22.Can read	yes	yes
23.Can write	yes	yes
24.Can speak English	yes	yes
25.Ownership of Home: Owned or rented	O
26.Ownership of Home: Owned free or mortgaged	M
27.Ownership of Home: Farm or house	H
28.Ownership of Home: Number of farm schedule

Commentary:

This is the earliest of four censuses (1900,^[2] 1910,^[3] 1920,^[4] and 1930^[5]) in which Charles B. and Bertie Sharp are found living together in or near the town of Forsyth, Taney County, Missouri. In all four censuses they used the same names, and their household characteristics were unique: lawyer, no children, and a 20 year age difference between spouses.

Despite the evidence that this was the same family in each of the four censuses, there was variation in the data reported. For example, in 1900, Charles's birthplace was given as Kentucky and not Mississippi. Also, in 1900, Bertie's age was increased by 10 years, so instead of reporting a birth year of 1873, 1863 was reported. It is also known from other sources that their marriage took place on 2 May 1895,^[6] so they would not have been married for 20 years, as was claimed.

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1. 1900 U.S. census, Taney County, Missouri, population schedule, Forsyth City, enumeration district (ED) 132, p. 104-B (previous page stamped), sheet 25-B (penned), dwelling 497, family 497, Charles B. Sharp household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 September 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 905. ^↩
2. Ibid. ^↩
3. 1910 U.S. census, Taney County, Missouri, population schedule, Forsyth Village, Swan Township (part of), enumeration district (ED) 208, p. 83-B (preceding page stamped), sheet 1-B, dwelling 16, family 16, Charles B. Sharp household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 August 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 827. [See Census Sunday - Charles B. Sharp household, 1910 U.S. Census, Taney Co., Mo.] ^↩
4. 1920 U.S. census, Taney County, Missouri, population schedule, Forsyth Village, Swan Township, enumeration district (ED) 237, p. 263-A (stamped), sheet 1-A (penned), dwelling 11, family 11, Charles B. Sharp household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 August 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 964. [See Census Sunday - Charles B. Sharp household, 1920 U.S. Census, Taney Co., Mo.] ^↩
5. 1930 U.S. census, Taney County, Missouri, population schedule, Swan Township, enumeration district (ED) 107-14, p. 251-A (stamped), sheet 8-A (penned), dwelling 182, family 182, Charles B. Sharpp household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 August 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1249. [See Census Sunday - Charles B. Sharpp household, 1930 U.S. Census, Taney Co., Mo.] ^↩
6. Taney County, Missouri, Marriage Licenses, Book 2: 152B, C.B. Sharpe and Bertie Gregory, 2 May 1895, marriage license and certification; Taney County Recorder, Forsyth. ^↩