I've been playing around with the free access to the 1930 census on Footnote.com and in experimenting with their interface, I remembered something:
anyone can easily be listed twice in the census.
My Grandma is listed twice in 1930--once with her parents and once in the household where she was "working out."
Her married brother is listed twice as well. Once with his wife in the town where he grew up and once in the town 30 miles away where he and his wife had moved for his job.
Never hurts to look more than once.
And if you think "working out" means exercise, well....it doesn't.
Note: the free access to the 1930 census on Footnote.com is only for the month of August 2009.
Some of those double posts can be very informative. The second listing for one of my great-great grandfathers on the 1860 census gives his "real" age (the other census-taker was behind 10 years on all the adults' ages) and shows him on the piece of land next to his sister-in-law (his brother had just died) which he still technically owned. I have found at least half a dozen double listings - children whose mother had just died living with their father and then with their grandparents, a 20-year-old living with his family and with his employer's family, etc.
ReplyDeleteOne should never ignore the "double entry." There is usually a reason for it and sometimes that reason leads to more records.
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