Census Records

Census records are interesting documents - I find them fascinating because of what they can't describe. In 1900, my thrice great grandmother was living in Chicago. The census lists her relation to the head of household as "roomer". While not being inaccurate - the head of household was running a boarding house and she may have been paying rent - it is incomplete. You see, the head of household was previously married to her daughter, my thrice great aunt. This aunt died thirty years before. So, my thrice great grandmother could be described as either his mother-in-law or his former mother-in-law. The census worker probably called this too much information or recorded the information from talking with the neighbors. (It is not the only inaccuracy on the part of that census taker - his second wife - I found the marriage license, is listed as "wage hand". I suspect if I reported my wife as a wage hand I wouldn't be married for much longer. She was still with him when he died eight years later and inherited the property.)

Thirty years later, in the 1930 census, the same family once again stymies the census worker. The second wife owns the property. She is the head of household. All the other occupants of the house are initially listed as "roomer". The first two - both teenagers with the same last name, are crossed out and replaced with "relative". Again this is incomplete. The head of house hold is a widow. The two teenagers are her stepson's children. They are either her step grand children or her step son's children. Too much for the census.