Twenty-Nine and Holding

1860 U. S. Census, City of St. Louis, Missouri, 2nd Ward, dwelling 387, George Rothweiler household.

Fractional ages for children under the age of 1 year are fairly common in United States census records. One occasionally sees fractional ages for chiildren over the age of one.

This enumeration is slightly different. The oldest female in the household (the apparent wife Wilhelmine Rothweiler) is indicated as having an age of 29 1/2. Fractional years appear as part of the ages for other children on this census page, but Wilhelmine (actually Wilhelmina) is the only adult on the page with a fractional part of a year included as a part of her age.

I'm not certain how common this is, but I don't remember having seen fractional ages for adults on a regular basis.

Or may she was just "twenty-nine and holding."

[Wilhelmina was a first cousin to my gg-grandfather John Michael Trautvetter.]