The ‘Secret’ Details in the 1940 Census You May Be Missing

[CanonRay]

The 1940 census of the United States is a particularly exciting one for genealogists for a number of reasons — the most obvious being that is was only indexed and released for public consumption a few years ago. The new records gave many of us a special chance to add vital new details to the our ancestors’ stories.

But there is a critical element of this massive family history resource that often gets overlooked. Built into the 16th census of the USA was a brand new initiative — the collection of a statistical sample of information for the purpose of extrapolating demographic data for the entire US.

http://familyhistorydaily.com/genealogy-help-and-how-to/the-secret-details-in-the-1940-census-you-may-be-missing/



Got this from a Facebook group.

[WolverineDG]

1. My grandfather appears twice in the 1940 census

he was an independent trucker & when the census man came to call, he was overnighting in Dallas, so got listed as a "resident" of the hotel. Meanwhile, in Corpus, my grandmother is including him in her household.

Fortunately I was able to leave a note so whoever updates the census data online could leave that information on there.

[Dem2theMax]

3. I can top that one!

I haven't posted on DU in ages, but I lurk every day. Your post reminded me of what I found about my grandfather
in the 1940 census. Actually, in the 1930 census, he started lying. Said he was married, when he wasn't, even gave the name of the woman he was supposedly married to, and gave my Dad's first name as a totally different name.

Then came the 1940 census. Lo and behold, guess who gets to land on the lucky #29 line? My grandfather.

His real name was Dennie Humphrey. He gave his name as Mike Humph. Try to find a 'Mike Humph' in ANY other census record.
Nope, not one. So grandpa was lying. By 1940, he really was married. His wife's name was Ellen. He listed her as Helen. But all the other data is correct, where they were born, his job, etc., so I know it is him. The best part is that he landed on line 29, so he got to answer extra questions.
When I looked at the extra question part, I can clearly see that the enumerator first wrote down Dennie's correct first name, as you can see the 'D' of his first name has been erased and then the name of 'Mike' is entered. When I went back up to line 29, I can faintly make out the 'D' again. You can even see the 'Y' at the end of name. Sometimes he spelled his name as Denny, rather than Dennie. Anyway, there he was, lying. Why? Who knows. He was the jerk of all jerks, so he was trying to hide for some reason.
I am betting that he must have known the enumerator and that is why he got away with changing his name on the page. Strangely enough, the enumerator's first name is Mike.

I can't wait to see the 1950 census and see what lies he came up with then!

My Dad on the other hand, isn't listed anywhere in the 1940 census. He was living with a family that he was unrelated to, and I guess they thought he didn't count. So your grandfather getting listed twice made up for my Dad not getting one listing!

[DebJ]

2. No the 1940 census was a big disappointment for me.

Because prior years' censuses always asked some of those questions.

The 2010 census will be a HUGE bomb for future researchers. Not enough info on anything asked. Thanks W, you asshat, for slashing
the budget for the census and fear-mongering about it.

[DURHAM D]

4. What cracks me up about my ancestors is how

some of them changed their country of origin. They were from Germany but then switched to Switzerland, Denmark or Holland. Not hard to guess why.

[HeiressofBickworth]

5. While it may seem that ancestors were giving bad info

it could be that when the census taker came around, no one was home. In those cases, the census taker was required to ask neighbors for information. Neighbors, perhaps not knowing your ancestors very well, gave what was erroneous information.

I recall the 1970 census. I didn't turn in the form on time and a census taker came to the door. I asked what if I wasn't home or refused to answer? The census taker said he would just ask the neighbors.

In a similar way with the spelling of names -- the spelling depended on the cultural/ethnic background or education level of the person WRITING the name down, not the person answering the question about his/her name. So where it may seem that on one census a family name is spelled one way and on another it's spelled another way, it may be due to the census taker who wrote it down.

[benld74]

6. Really weird

Seeing my father, uncle and aunt listed at such young ages. They have all passed on now, but seeing my father listed at age 21, right before WWII, and knowing what he was about to do, was weird.
Noticed the value of the family home, had dropped over 10K since the last census. Grandfather was a carpenter, most likely built it himself. Worked the mines in the area as well. Passed it on to his oldest son. My father as the youngest and was listed as a truck driver in the '40 census. Also did this in WWII in the Pacific too.
Located my wife's family in the same census as well. Her mother was in another part of the country but I located her too. Wife's grandmother came thru STL, OKL, into Colorado thru the years. Found her in Missouri, Colorado but NOT Oklahoma.

[kdmorris]

7. My paternal grandfather was not listed

When I researched by looking at the census itself, it looks like they missed 6 houses on that street.

But this is good information for the ones I found

[Blue_In_AK]

8. I was just looking at that census this morning.

My dad was 25, working for the government in DC and making $800 a year, which wasn't bad for a young person in those days when the median US income was $960 a year.