The real Caroline Ingalls' parents were Henry Quiner and Charlotte Tucker Quiner. After her father passed away in a sailing accident on Lake Michigan in 1845 at the age of 38, her mother remarried, having married Frederick Holbrook in 1849. The Frederick Holbrook depicted in this episode would actually be Caroline's stepfather, and therefore would most likely not know about Caroline's very early childhood (before the age of 10). Since her birth father passed away when Caroline was five years old, she may have no memory of him and considers Frederick Holbrook to be her father. Caroline's mother passed away on 20 September1884 at the age of 75. Unlike in this episode, her stepfather passed away before his wife, in 1874, when Caroline was 34 years old and when her and Charles had only been married fourteen years.
The book Albert has been assigned to read is George Eliot's "Silas Marner." Caroline claims to have read the same book as a schoolgirl, but this is unlikely since it wasn't published until 1861.
Though Frederick Holbrook (Caroline's father) was seen at the beginning of the original TV movie/pilot for the series, he was played by a different actor and had no lines.