Census Records - Extra People in Household

What do you do, when the Census Record has people listed, that may not be family?

This is a 1940 U.S. Federal Census Record, where Raymond Lane and Donald Dutton are both listed in the Household. Since this is a 1940 Census Record which indicates that they both are Hired Hands.

I have spend a couple of days thinking and seeing if it is important to capture this information. That is, add these two people to the database. So, I played around with this to see if there was any benefit.

When I enter a Census Record, I Copy what Ancestry provides in the Transcription and Paste it into the Residence Fact NOTES.

You will notice, that these two "extra" people are in Bold. That is the indication to me, that I have entered them into my database, as Unrelated People. The Data Error Report will show them with that they have No Spouse, No Children, No Parents. I can deal with that.

But, what about later, I find that person again, in another record. I wanted to be able to see, that in a Census Record, there were in a Census Record, but NOT related to the Head of Household. So, I created a Fact called "How Related", where I enter the Census Year, Head of Household, and what the relationship is. Here is what Donald looks like, with the Data Error Report and the How Related Facts appear.

He is unrelated, and will appear in the Data Error Report, but when I run that report, I filter OUT everyone who has a Data Error Report Fact. Meaning, I KNOW about that error.

Why the Extra Work?

I found this one person, Relation to Head of Household as Boarder. A throw-away, right ? Wrong.

As it turns out, the Head of Household would become his Mother In Law.

Here she is in the 1900, 1920, 1930, and 1940 Census (haven't gotten to the 1910 census yet)

1900 she is Head of household where I found my person as a boarder. 1920, 1930, and 1940, she is the Mother-in-Law to the Head of Household. (don't jump to conclusions please).

Those are the Residence facts as recorded, but look at the How Related Fact looks.

The 1940 Census record shows that she had moved into another Daughter's home. Because the 1940 has the reference to 1935, showing Same House, I can now pin point as to WHEN show moved from on daughter's house to another, and in a different state.

My records indicate that the "mother in law" was widowed about 1911. I have not yet found a reason why she might have moved back to Pennsylvania, only that the "son in law" and her daughter had 6 children in the 1920 Census and the second daughter, the one in Philadelphia, only had 1 daughter.

I have added this to my new Best Practices: Add seemingly Unrelated Individuals to the Database.

The secret to this is the Bolding of the Name, in the Residence Fact Note, when you Add that "Unrelated" person to the database.

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