Over the holiday weekend I spent some time researching my 3d great grandparents on my father’s side, Henry Clay McEuen (1823-1894) and his wife Elizabeth Baker McEuen (1829-1917). They lived their lives in Kentucky.
Henry and Elizabeth had 14 children, the eldest of whom was my great great grandmother, Henrietta McEuen Adams (1847-1902). As part of checking my sources, I was looking at Source 22, the 1880 federal census entry for Henrietta and her husband George Washington Adams (1845-1938) in Rumsey, Kentucky.
The entry for George and Henrietta spanned two pages. When I was looking at the second page, I noticed that Henrietta’s parents were on that page. They were living with nine of their children, along with four grandchildren and Elizabeth’s mother–a four-generation household. I went to add that source to their record in Reunion and saw that I already had a (different) source for them for the 1880 census. I figured I’d duplicated the same source and was surprised to see it was a separate enumeration, on a different date, in a different town. In this second enumeration, the youngest five of their children were with them. The names and ages all matched. It was clear to me that it was the same family.
I did a little googling and discovered that being counted twice isn’t that unusual. The census is supposed to reflect the state of a household as of the census date (which in 1880 was 1 June). But clearly, in the case of this family, it reflected the household on the days the enumerator knocked on the door. I suspect that’s not unusual.
On the first enumeration, on 11 June 1880, in Rumsey, McLean, Kentucky, Henry is listed as 55 years old and a farmer. In the second enumeration, on 29 June 1880, in Sacramento, McLean Kentucky (10 miles away on today’s roads), Henry is listed as 56 years old and a “tobacco speculator” (or at least that’s what I think it says–let me know if you think otherwise when you look at the photo above). A quick look at Henry’s birth date revealed that he was in fact a year older–he celebrated a birthday on 28 June, the day before the second enumeration.
I’m speculating that some time between 11 June and 29 June, Henry and Elizabeth (or Betty, as she was known), packed up their five children under 20 and moved to Sacramento. They left behind the four older children who had lived with them, including Lucretia, a widow, and her four kids, along with Betty’s mother, Mahala Baker. Henrietta and George lived nearby.
I wonder what prompted the couple to move away from five of their kids and her mother. Perhaps Sacramento was a better place to be a tobacco speculator, or perhaps Henry had not bought land yet, so couldn’t call himself a farmer. I look forward to trying to dig into this a little more to see why the family might have moved.
It’s really fun to me how a single discovery like this–a family being counted twice on a census–can lead to further hypotheses and discoveries. If they’d moved in May or July, rather than June, I wouldn’t have had this level of detail to go on.
I love playing detective and I’m grateful to Henry and Betty for providing so many clues!
My counted twice great uncle at first lead me to believe it wasn’t the same man. Later after much digging I realized that he was at his parents as well as being with his wife at another time. Since he had two wives (one who died in that next decade), I really thought I had 2 different people. Once I figured out he was counted twice, I ended up with a whole new family line — in Canada!
What a wonderful breakthrough, Delia! Thank you so much for sharing.
Is Reunion like a software family tree like Roots Magic? Thanks for any help. Really like your blog.
Yes! Reunion is Mac-specific family-tree software. It’s the only one I’ve used, but I really like it. Glad you like the blog!
Definitely speculator: “Speculation, which involved driving up prices on desperately needed consumer goods, was both rampant and roundly condemned in the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861–1865).” So, condemned, but apparently not illegal. I knew people could be double counted on a census, but I’ve never encountered it personally. I love playing detective too!
Thanks for commenting, Hazel. This was fifteen years after the Civil War…I do wonder about the turn of events. I hope I get the opportunity to find out!
Since I last commented I’ve seen a client’s ancestor (and some of her children) counted twice TWICE — in two different decades!
Don’t you love it! I have seen that also, with clients and they even had different races on the censuses. And yes, it was the same family, they were most likely visiting other family. Shows that census records are not always the absolute best source.
Dont you love it! You know about when they moved. Now Sacramento is not that far from San Francisco. I would imagine that location would be idea for someone who may be shipping tobacco. Both cities would have lots of businessmen. How fun!
Yes, Maria, narrowing down their move to a three-week period is amazing! My ancestors moved to tiny Sacramento, Kentucky, not California. I look forward to trying to figure it out!
I have a second great-grandfather, David McAlpin, who was enumerated three times in the 1870 US Census. Click on my name above to see that specific post.
Wow! I loved reading your explanation of your findings. What a great discovery!
My husband has an ancestor counted 2x in the 1850 census. He was in Coloma, CA mining a gold claim about a mile from where gold was discovered just two years before, and is listed there as a miner. Meanwhile, back home in upstate NY his wife listed him as a ‘gold digger’. We get a chuckle out of that.
“Gold digger.” I love it! Thanks for sharing.