A recent Genealogy Tip of the Day mentioned double enumerations in the census.
The family of George W.and Jennie Trask was easily located in a 1920 census enumeration in Galesburg, Illinois.
There’s another George Trask, aged fifty years of age living in Galesburg, Illinois. That George Trask was also a horse buyer and was born in Illinois. That George Trask was living in a rooming house at 231 East Simmons Street.
I don’t think there were two men named George Trask who were working as horse buyers in Galesburg, Illinois in 1920. It seems more likely that the enumerations are for the same man. The age discrepancy is not a major concern. There are 15 roomers in the boarding house at 231 East Simmons Street and four of them have ages that end in a 0. That seems like a high number (the actual probability that four people chosen randomly out of fifteen have an age ending in 0 is actually approximately 4%).
There’s another interesting little detail in the entry for George Trask at 231 East Simmons Street. It appears the enumerator initially indicated Trask was divorced and wrote over the entry to indicate a marital status of married.
Why George is enumerated twice is not clear from the double entries. Any theories that researchers think are suggested should be verified with other records if possible. The key is that anyone can be enumerated more than once in a census.
Jeanne A Jeffries says:
It seems likely that George relocated from one place to the other place. Wonder what were the 2 dates of recording.
mjnrootdig says:
It is also possible that they were separated and the wife didn’t want to tell the census taker.
Kristy Gravlin says:
It’s possible that two brothers had sons at a fairly close moment in time…and both chose the solid “family” name of George for their sons. Sometimes there were several cousins with the same, or very similar, names.
mjnrootdig says:
In some cases that’s true. Unfortunately the only George Trask in the area was the one who was the husband of Jenny—and this George had no Trasks cousins who lived nearby. But…that’s always a good possibility to consider.