Monday, November 3, 2014

Harold Kreinik in the US Census

The indexing of census data available on Ancestry.com allows us to get right to the correct information which lets us know the ages and relationships of our family.

But then sometimes the indexing is just wrong or the census data on which it is based is wrong.

1940 Census (snippet)


The 1940 Census shows Harold Kreinik (spelled Krenik) the head of the household as a male aged 38. Jeanne, "age 10" is listed as his "daughter." She is actually Jeanne Dorfman, his wife, who would have been 34 in 1940.

Then there is Dorothy, the baby, who was surely under one year old in 1940. The idexer read the crossed out 7 as 57, which made Harold's and Jeanne's daughter well older than either of them.

Not done. Molly Dorfman, "Mot-in-Law," is listed as 39 years old. A mother-in-law barely older than her daughter? Lotsa luck on that one. She would have had Jeanne, her baby, when she was 5.

The record can be used to argue that Jeanne's father, Samuel Dorfman, probably was dead by 1940.

I think Coralie may be the only person in this record who was listed correctly, but her daughter Honey Leveen (named after her Grandfather Harold) will set us all straight.