1940 Census two different locations Same People

Question

I just came across a 1940 Census with my grandmother and my great aunt with an alternate last name Spelling. Verna May Felps and Juanita Felps Golden Lake, Mississippi, Arkansas. Verna M. Phillips and Waneda Phillips also show up in Scott County Tennessee on the 1940 Census with Mother Rosie Phillips. in Arkansas they are with uncle last name Shepard. On my great grandmother's ( Rosie Moore Phillips) delayed birth certificate there was a Shepard who signed as a family member.

Comments

Thank you all for the quick answers. How about a third census? April 10, 1940. I have looked into this third one and it comes up with a dead end also.

Answer 1

I have seen this in my own family when an elderly family member lived with two different children.  In your case one report was on April 2, one on April 25, so the children could have been physically in both places when the census taker showed up.  The other possibility is that the children were with relatives the whole time, but since they usually lived with their mother she also reported them to the census taker.

Comments

Thank you.

Answer 2

I have also seen this for one of my Notables - she was living in NYC in 1940, but also enumerated at her parents home in Philadelphia.

The qwerks of the 1940 census. Was that census done twice?

Answer 3

According to the 1940 Census, my mother was living with her parents at Billings, Montana, with her brother's birth date and birthplace, and her brother is nowhere to be found. In fact, she was actually living at Worcester, Massachusetts, as a boarder in the home of her uncle and aunt, as the census also shows, and her brother was the one living in Billings.

Answer 4

This happens a lot with families where there is divorce, death, or whatever.   While the parent will "claim" that the child lives with them, because it is their child, the child may actually be living with "other relatives".

Answer 5

Back when travel was not so easy, people visited relatives and friends less often but for more extended periods of time. Often young family members might be staying with a relative to help with work or young children for extended period of time.

 I think that is why we do find dual listings for people in the census. Children or parents probably reported everyone "living" in their household even if they were away for a while. Others reported everyone staying with them at the time, even visitors.

Answer 6

My ggrandfather was a policeman, and in several census years he is listed both at his home and also at the Precinct house.

Answer 7

Having the same person reported to be living at more than once place prompted the census to redesign how it asked the question "Who lives in this household?" We now ask, "Who lived in this household on April 1st?", which is our census day.  A more explicit question has not stopped all dual reporting, but it has lowered the occurrence of it.

Answer 8

My mother-in-law appears twice in the 1940 Census. Once, with her father under her maiden name and, second, with her husband in a nearby town.

My in-laws married around the time of the census, so I just chalked it up to the fact that she was counted on two different days in two locations.