Celeste, I agree with you. When the 1940 census came out I located my paternal uncle in Oakland. His first name was listed as John. His name was Ralph. He NEVER used or was called John. The informant was listed as his wife and I know she knew his name. The only thing I can think of was that the census taker had forgotten and just wrote down John.
When looking you also have to take into consideration the census takers handwriting and whoever tried to read it. My mother's maiden (the Portuguese side) name was Lewis. I found my grandmother and uncle (mom's youngest brother) listed as Seuis on Ancestry.com. Genealogy is truly detective work! Lorinda Baker Sevenans (Portuguese side: Lewis/Luiz, Souza, Vieirra, Silva, etc.) On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 4:36 PM, celeste perry <[email protected]> wrote: > Sometimes, the census information is correct and you would not know it. > In my case, I looked at the 1940 census when it first came out. Not > because I "needed" any information from the census. At least I did not > know there would be any information that interested me on this census. > > What I found was that I was listed as living with my grandparents, my > mother, her 2 sisters and a great aunt. The surname was listed as Sobral > on the first line before my grandfather's first name. So far, so good. > All those living in the house were listed below and I was listed last. > Squeezed between my name and the name above me was the name De Azevedo. > The informant was my mother who was 20 years old at the time and who was > not married when I was born. > > Of course, everyone listed was dead by this time (except me) and I could > not ask anyone why I had never used the name De Azevedo in my entire life. > Not in school, not ever. Before my mother married and I was adopted my > surname was Sobral. > > There is a lot more to this confusing story and I was lucky to have had a > grandmother who told me everything I might want to know when I grew up. > However, I am positive that no one in the house knew my mother had said my > surname was different from the family name. > > As others have stated, census information is what the informant says and > that may be confused by what the census taker thinks is said and what is > heard. In most cases, census information can be helpful in locating > someone's residence and can lead to where to look for other clues and > useful information. > Celeste, Hayward, CA > Celeste Perry [email protected] > > -- > For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail > (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the > right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my > membership." > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Azores Genealogy" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores?hl=en. > > > -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores?hl=en.
