This evening, I was updating my ahnentafel (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~oldpinecastle/ahnentafel.html) to include 1940 census enumerations for my direct ancestors and came across one image that threw me for a bit of a loop:
The Lola Morgan enumerated to the right of the red arrow was the widow of my namesake great-great-grandfather. The census schedule indicates she lived on Dade Street in Orlando, Florida, with her son-in-law Michael J. Doyle. But, I knew this could not be. None of her daughters married a man by this name.
There are other problems with the schedule. It implies Mr. Doyle (who was actually ten years OLDER than his apparent mother-in-law) had an 11-year-old son who bore a different surname (Walker) and was born in Pennsylvania (a part of the country where I have no known family connections.) And, a few lines further down there is another woman listed as mother-in-law (Florence Mathews).
So, just what the heck is going on here?
The solution to this little mystery is the unassuming number 242 to the left of Lola's name (indicated with the red star). According to the column heading, it indicates the order in which the census enumerator visited a given household. Note, there are different numbers given not only for Mr. Doyle but also the Walker boy and Mrs. Mathews.
It dawned on me this was probably a "make-up" schedule prepared to include people who were missed during the transcription of field notes.
On a hunch, I scrolled up through the rest of the enumeration district until I got to household number 242.
BINGO!
Household #242 included Lola's eldest daughter Agnes, her husband Arthur, and their daughter Lois at a known family residence in the College Park section of Orlando.
The take-away: Check the end of the enumeration district's schedules for make-up entries that may include additional members of your ancestral households.
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