I know what you mean, people seem to have rarely been recorded with consistent names & ages throughout the census, and sometimes it takes a lot of extra checking around to make sure you do have the right families. It doesn't help that few people seemed to have the same first names in every census, too, not knowing middle names or nicknames of an individual can prove to be the cause for much confusion at times.
At least now you know that your family was probably actually born in Indiana, and you can try to narrow down your search to that area.
Good Luck,
Deloris