Ancestry/Genealogy

I haven't posted on DU in ages, but I lurk every day. Your post reminded me of what I found about my grandfather
in the 1940 census. Actually, in the 1930 census, he started lying. Said he was married, when he wasn't, even gave the name of the woman he was supposedly married to, and gave my Dad's first name as a totally different name.

Then came the 1940 census. Lo and behold, guess who gets to land on the lucky #29 line? My grandfather.

His real name was Dennie Humphrey. He gave his name as Mike Humph. Try to find a 'Mike Humph' in ANY other census record.
Nope, not one. So grandpa was lying. By 1940, he really was married. His wife's name was Ellen. He listed her as Helen. But all the other data is correct, where they were born, his job, etc., so I know it is him. The best part is that he landed on line 29, so he got to answer extra questions.
When I looked at the extra question part, I can clearly see that the enumerator first wrote down Dennie's correct first name, as you can see the 'D' of his first name has been erased and then the name of 'Mike' is entered. When I went back up to line 29, I can faintly make out the 'D' again. You can even see the 'Y' at the end of name. Sometimes he spelled his name as Denny, rather than Dennie. Anyway, there he was, lying. Why? Who knows. He was the jerk of all jerks, so he was trying to hide for some reason.
I am betting that he must have known the enumerator and that is why he got away with changing his name on the page. Strangely enough, the enumerator's first name is Mike.

I can't wait to see the 1950 census and see what lies he came up with then!

My Dad on the other hand, isn't listed anywhere in the 1940 census. He was living with a family that he was unrelated to, and I guess they thought he didn't count. So your grandfather getting listed twice made up for my Dad not getting one listing!