January 24, 2022 12:28 PM

Pages 546-547
Whole Number 33

SPARKS FAMILIES LISTED ON THE 1840 CENSUS OF TENNESSEE

Compiled by Carrie Grant Heppen

(Editor's Note: In previous issues of the Quarterly, we have acknowledged the Association's indebtedness to Carrie Grant Heppen of Washington, D.C., for her many contributions to the Sparks family's genealogy. Mrs. Heppen is a professional genealogist who takes a real interest in her work. For several years she has watched constantly for the Sparks name while working on other families, and she has copied many important records for us. Recently she searched the entire 1840 census of Tennessee for another name and, as always. She also watched for the name Sparks. In her usual humble manner, Mrs. Heppen has expressed fear that she may not have noticed all the Sparks entries, but your editor doubts that she missed any.

In the September, 1955, issue of the Quarterly, we published a record compiled by William Perry Johnson of the Sparks families listed on the 1820 and 1830 census record of Tennessee. In 1830, twenty-seven different Sparks families were living in fifteen Tennessee counties. In 1840, there were thirty-eight different Sparks families living in twenty-four Tennessee counties.

In all federal census records prior to 1850, only the name of the head of each household was given. Opnosite each name, the members of the household, including the head, were enumerated by sex and age group. In the 1840 census, males and females were divided into thirteen age categories. We may assume that in most households, the man listed as the head of that household was the oldest male enumerated and that the oldest female enumerated was his wife, but one cannot always be sure. (If the head of the household was a woman, i.e. Sinthy Sparks in Bledsoe County, we may assume she was the oldest female listed.) Likewise, those members of the household younger than the head were usually his children, but in some instances apprentices, orphaned neighbor children, and relatives were enumerated as members of the household. On the 1840 census, male and female slaves were enumerated, but not in age groups. The page number of the volume in which the name appears is given in the following record opposite each name.)

Tennessee - 1840 Census