Would a child living in an orphanage be included in a census

Question

Orphanage(  1920s or  30s, ) was around  Front  Royal  Virginia,  she was later  adopted. Someone  is  trying  to  find her real  last  name  or  birth  parents. Person  in  question  is  deceased.  in  the  1990s,  Were  children  living  in  orphanages included  in  a  census.?

Comments

They're supposed to be, but sometimes census takers got really sloppy with institutional enumerations.

Answer 1

I've seen U.S. Census records for orphanages and similar institutions, wherein the children in the institution were all individually listed. But there are other instances where I'm pretty sure that a particular child or adult was living in an institution, and I can't find that person in the census.

Comments

Exactly!  My father, his older brother and their two younger sisters were abandoned by their father in 1927 two weeks after their mother died.  Dropped them off at an orphnage and never saw them again.  The girls were eventually adopted but the boys never were.  They are listed in the 1930 census among all the inmates of the orphanage.  In many cases, even patients in hospitals were enumerated, as my father was in 1940.

---

This lady is  listed  in  the  1940  census  as  having  been  adopted, she  is    age  6. It  seems  they  made  no  secret  of  the  fact. Birth  parent(s) and  Adoptive  parents  are  deceased.  Her  grandaughter  is  searching.for  info. Thanks

---

Hi Hart,

You mention that she was age 6 in the 1940 census. If so, then she would not be listed in the 1920 or 1930 census. Some states or lower jurisdictions may have taken a more frequent census than the Federal Census, so you'd need to check the specific jurisdiction to see if there was a census taken at some level between 1933/34 and 1940.