Found something REALLY weird on ancestry.com...???

Question:

Found something REALLY weird on ancestry.com...???

OK. I don't pay for it, I was just basically on the site for curiosity purposes. Found out that in the 1920 Census, my great grandmother is listed as her first husband's wife AND her second husband's wife. (My family is DEVOUT Catholic, and I don't want any smart alec answers about polygamy.) How is this possible? I know her first husband died b/c of the Spanish Influenza (about 1928, without looking up the exact year). And I've been told by my great aunts and uncles that she didn't meet her 2nd husband til after her first died. Is it possible that back in 1920 the census took over 8 years to complete? That's really the only possible explanation I can come up with that makes sense logically, but if any of you have any other ideas, please, do tell...

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Contrary to some opinions shared above, it was not possible for the 1920 census to take 8 years to be completed. It has only one REAL purpose and that is to apportion legislative representation. There is a federal law that requires it to be completed within the first year of the decade.

If you found 2 men whose wife/wives had the same name/age/etc, I would suggest it's a cool coincidence. But I would not suggest it was the same woman. The real answer is to go to the County Clerk for that location and look up the records on both men and their marriage history. Records in the 1920s were very well kept and easily accessible (it's more than 72 years). I would venture to guess that the second husband's first wife had the same name as your grandmother. But it's just a guess until you pull the records.

BTW, to put your mind at ease you can pull the actual films for the 1920 census in that county and look at the dates of the individual visits to those households. I'd be shocked to find they were more than a week apart.

The other thing for you to do in light of their devout Catholicism is to contact the parish office for copies of their sacramental records. Explain what you've found and what you're hoping to find (the names of everyone's spouses, including maiden names of the brides) and request copies of everyone's Septulme (Rite of Christian Burial) records from the parish. That should tell you who was married to whom, when, who their surviving spouses were, etc. Catholic records use the same privacy laws as federal records...no release for 72 years from birth and marriage records, but immediate release if they know the person is dead.