Emma Zetta was the seventh child in the family of Robert Newton Turpin and Sarah Elizabeth Lowery. I love the name Emma Zetta! While searching censuses, I noticed that there was another Emma Zetta born in Iowa in 1858. So out of curiosity I googled the name and found plenty of them – it was obviously a name making the rounds in the 1800s.
Yet the 1870 census taker mangled her name quite badly. Here is a clip from that census when the Turpin family lived in Grand Junction, Washington Township, Greene County, IA. Emma Zetta appears as Henertta. Even the name Turpin is mangled.
This census was post-Civil War. Thomas has died, as has Martha. Margaret is out of the house and married. Anna and her husband Will Turpen are living next door. With a household full of women, Newt has a 13-year-old boy, William Pickett, living with them to help with the farm.
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| Turpin Family in 1870 Census |
