I'm getting very frustrated with my dad's grandmother's family. The complete family shows up in US census records in 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1900, plus NY census records in 1855, 1865, and 1892. Cool, right? Only problem is, they change ages randomly - you would expect them to age approx. 10 years between the federal census enumerations, but nope. His birth year (because I can't find a birth record for him in NY) is estimated to be somewhere between 1830 and 1847!!!! So my first instinct is, it can't be the same guy, but it is. His parents are the same, then it's just his mom after Dad dies, and all the brothers and sisters are in the appropriate order, just weirdly aged. And that goes for all of them. Did they not know how old they were? It looks like they just randomly guessed every time the census taker came around, lol.
Okay, rant over. I feel better. Carry on.