Ever seen a family add adult children to their Census form that were all married and living and recorded elsewhere?

+1 vote
129 views

Thomas and Ann Freeman in 1841 Census and 1851 Census.

Is it the same family? There are no other alternatives I can find in the 1841 Census that match the 1851 family.

Profession for the eldest son lines up. Thomas' profession of messenger does not, but obviously he could have changed work. Ages of children very close. Mary Ann an outlier but 1851 age matches up with a baptism of sister of the same name that I had assumed died young.

Thing is sons Thomas and George were both married and living elsewhere in 1851 and his daughter Emma was also and now had the surname Kempton.

Baptism records cannot be found for most of the children.

WikiTree profile: Thomas Freeman
in Genealogy Help by Mark Dorney G2G6 Mach 6 (63.9k points)

2 Answers

+2 votes
I have seen the same man listed on the census with his parents as "son" and in the same census in a nearby city as ʻboarder".

It could be that the parents were asked if they had children (which they did) but were not asked if the children lived with them.
by Kristina Adams G2G6 Pilot (343k points)
Maybe as boarders they didn’t consider themselves as living there permanently, but Mum and Dad’s place was home?
Marion, I imagine the parents still thought of him as living with them. In the boarding house I assume the proprietor would list the boarders.

Also, maybe he was at the boarding house during the week while he worked and with his parents when not working.

I wonder what the instructions were as to the specific date and where an individual stayed, I think it was 1930.

We just have to be detectives and skeptics!

The 1930 U.S. enumerator instructions are online, but to answer your question, the date of the census was 1 April, so "persons dying after April 1 should be enumerated, but persons born after April 1 should not be enumerated." Furthermore, "Persons who move into your district after April 1, for permanent residence, however, should be enumerated by you, unless you find that they have already been enumerated in the district from which they came." 

As for where to record people, "In general, all persons are to be enumerted at their "usual place of abode" on April 1, 1930. This means, usually, the place which they would name in reply to the question" Where do you live?" This is unlike the UK censuses, which were to record where everyone was on a specific night.

If you are interested in other U.S. census instructions the bureau's website has them online for 1790 to 2010.

+3 votes

Yes, I have. On the 1870 U.S. census all 9 living children of Oliver Blanchette are listed as members of his household even though at least 5 of them were married and had families of their own that they were also enumerated with. It was likely due the the unusual circumstances: The official census date was 1 June, but the census taker didn't arrive until at the house until 22 August. In between Oliver's wife died on 8 June (she is recorded in the census as she should be) and he was dying of consumption (he died on 7 September), so the children were likely at the house taking care of both their father and getting their parent's affairs in order.

by Sean Pickett G2G6 Mach 1 (10.7k points)
Were the daughters recorded using their married names? Not hvaing this is what I find so weird about the situation I've found.
I found a third married daughter, bringing it to 6 known married children. All three married daughters were recorded with their father's (incorrectly recorded) surname.

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