Never assume that those “boarders” in a census entry are merely strangers taken in for extra income. Those boarders could be relatives as well. Sometimes the census focuses on the “financial” relationship and not the biological one. Always do a little snooping on those boarders living with your ancestor.
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3 Responses
This is a good tool.
In one case, my maternal great uncle was boarding with my paternal great aunt and her husband.
Boarders, especially those with uncommon names, can be useful when ancestors are hard to find. The family of a two times great uncle seemed to just disappear from census records, but I found them by searching for presumably a long-term boarder. The family name, Workman, had been transcribed as Clarkman. I would have never thought to look under Clarkman!