Someone living as a boarder with your relative may be more than a boarder–they could be a relative as well. Don’t assume that first cousins or nephews would be listed with those relationships in the census. They could simply be enumerated as a boarder.
And that hired man?
Depending upon the age or the situation, he could end up being the son-in-law or the widow’s new husband.
2 Responses
Yes, I have wondered about that, will definitely check these people out.
That’s good advice. When I had another look at census records I’d copied decades ago, I realised that some of the miscellaneous people in the household were actually distant relatives whom I didn’t know about when I first used those records. And in two cases, a domestic servant had later married someone in that household.