A Strange Way to Write 0s and 6s

 

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, “When was Uncle Teddy Born?,” Theodore Peters was listed as 6 years old in the 1860 census.

However, it might not be clear to everyone that he was listed as 6. As you can see from the image above, the number next to Theodore looks like a long line followed by a short line. Why do I think this is a 6?

After looking at many pages written by this enumerator, his “6” often looks the same: a long line followed by a short line. In the family above, it makes sense that Henry is 6 and is listed between sibling with ages of 8 and 4.

In this family, Sarah is probably the mother-in-law of Vincent Lake. Again, from studying this enumerator’s writing, his zero is often written as two long lines side-by side. So, Sarah is 60 years old. You can also see another example of a zero next to Vincent Lake’s name in his family number: 1096.

Strangely, the enumerator didn’t always write his zeroes and sixes in this strange manner. As you can see next to Vincent Lake, the number 1096 has a pretty normal 6. But, the numbers are written in this unusual way often enough to be certain that Theodore Peters is listed as 6 years old in this census.

Has anyone else seen samples of writing 0s and 6s like this? I’m wondering if it is from a certain culture or time period, though I haven’t seen it before and haven’t been able to find out any information about the enumerator as I can’t make out his name.