Was Luke alive in 1870?

In 1870 there is a listing for the Cartrett family, with Luke as the head of household. Is this our Luke and his family? Let’s look at the evidence.

The 1870 U.S. Census that lists Luke and his family was taken on August 3, 1870, in the Goldsboro Township of Wayne County, North Carolina. In the prior census, the family lived in Columbus County, N.C. Did they move? It’s not unreasonable that they would.

The family last name is given as Cartrett in 1860, but as Cartret in 1870. This is not all that surprising since there are numerous examples of mistakes in U.S. Census records, for a wide variety of reasons. For example, Spelling Bees were not used in U.S. Public Schools to improve spelling until the 1880’s. See this web-article for other examples and reasons why the census records are not to be taken as the final word on genealogical information: Common Problems with Census Records

Luke was born in 1831, so in 1860 he was about 29 years old. The Census record agrees with that, listing him as 29. In 1870 he would be about 39, however, the record that we have states that he is 49! This could be a mistake by the enumerator, or by the person who gave the enumerator the information (often information was gathered from a neighbor, not the actual family). Should this be overlooked, or was Luke actually not in the household?

Next time, we'll look at the rest of the 1870 Census data as compared to 1860, and draw some conclusions.