It was not supposed to happen but it did–being enumerated more than once in a United States census.
If your relative was working away from home and living elsewhere, they may have been listed more than once. If a husband was estranged from his wife, but they were not divorced, he may be enumerated in two places even though he was only living in one. People who were moving around the time of the census may have been listed twice instead of being left out (that helps to correct the count for those people who were completely missed). My own grandmother in 1930 is enumerated twice, once with her parents and once in the household where she was working as a hired girl.
The same thing happened to Mark Twain in 1850. He’s enumerated under his real name in both enumerations in Hannibal, Missouri: Samuel Clemens. Once he is in his household of origin and once he’s enumerated with a local printer.
Someone even made a note on the edge that “This is Mark Twain.”
Sure enough it is–but apparently they missed the other reference.
Samuel Clemens in the 1850 Census
Samuel Clemens in the 1850 Census–again!
8 Responses
My grandfather and aunt were enumerated twice in 1930, one at their home in NH and the second a few days later at a hotel in Boston. Now if I could just find them in the 1940 census!
My grandfather was enumerated twice in the 1900 census; at home with his parents in NYC and again at boarding school in Pomfret CT.
My great great grandfather was enumerated twice in 1850 census.
Once in Independence, MO with wife and children and again in Sacramento, CA.
He would have left MO by the time of the census but she may have listed him thinking he wouldn’t be picked up in route to CA.
The California census was taken very late in the year. He died in Dec. 1850 in Sacramento.
I think my grandfather may have been enumerated three times in 1910. Once with his birth family in Kansas and twice in Montana when he was heading out to join an older brother homesteading.
My grandparents were enumerated twice in 1910 in Missouri. Evidently they moved to the next county during the time they were doing the census, and had a different address.
Yes my great great grand parents were listed twice. Them and their children! They had twin girls and a couple other children… the twins were listed as 6 in one enumeration and 7 in the next…the father was listed the same age in both listings but the mother was 10 yrs older in the second one! The census taker must have been drinking that year!
My father was enumerated twice in the 1930 census. Once on April 2 in Covington County Alabama where he had been living with an aunt. He is also listed on april 11 in El Paso, Texas where he was staying with his brother who was there being treated for tuberculosis.
My husband’s great grandfather Vincent Garner Self was enumerated three times. Each time at a different child’s home.