Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:
It's Saturday Night again -
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!
Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):
1) Which of your ancestors or relatives have you NOT found in the Census records and what have you done or are doing to try to find that person? Can AI help?
2) Identify one or more of your ancestors that are inexplicably missing from one or more census collections. Why do you think they were not enumerated?
3) Share your information about your Ancestor or Relative NOT in the census records in your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system. Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.
Thank you to Marian B. Wood for this SNGF idea.
Here's mine:
My paternal grandmother, Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver (1882-1962) was not enumerated in the 1940 U.S. census with her husband Frederick W. Seaver (1876-1942) and daughter Geraldine (1917-2007) in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts on 16 April 1940. Frederick and Geraldine were residing at 90 Main Street in Leominster. Frederick was the informant, and provided accurate information, including an M for married.
Where was Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver? Over the years, I have searched for her in the Ancestry, FamilySearch and MyHeritage 1940 U.S. Census collections. I tried:
- Surname spellings: Seaver, Sever, Seavers, Seaner, Severs, Sevier, Leaver, Lever, Leaner, S*v*r*, L*v*r*, Se*er*, Le*er*, etc.
- First name spellings: Alma, Bessie, Alm*, Bes*, A., B., Mrs. Frederick, Mrs. F.W., etc.
- Birth year: 1882 plus/minus 5 years; no birth year
- Birth location: Connecticut, Massachusetts, adjacent states.
Why was she not enumerated?
- Omitted by the enumerator in Leominster.
- Was visiting friends or relatives in Massachusetts, New Hampahire or Connecticut on the enumeration day.
- Was traveling, in a hospital or care center on the enumeration day.
- Told her husband and daughter to fool the enumerator.
Can AI help? I asked the free OpenAI ChatGPT5 tool to provide reasons she might be absent, and a strategy to find her in the 1940 census.
Why might Alma have been absent?
Given what is known about the family, I would rank the possibilities approximately as follows:
- Enumerator or indexing error (most likely)
- Visiting relatives on 1 April 1940
- Hospital or medical facility
- Enumerated elsewhere under a badly misspelled surname
- Accidentally omitted from the household
- Temporary separation from Frederick (possible, but there would ideally be supporting evidence such as directories, newspapers, or later records)
A research strategy I'd recommend
Since you already know the Leominster household, I would proceed in this order:
- Read every page of the enumeration district containing 90 Main Street.
- Search all Massachusetts census entries for women named Alma born 1882 ±3 years.
- Search all Richmond siblings and their households.
- Search hospitals and institutions in Worcester County.
- Review 1939–1941 Leominster city directories.
- Search local newspapers for Alma, Bessie, or Mrs. Frederick W. Seaver during 1939–1940.
I asked ChatGPT5 what the "miss rate" was for the 1940 U.S. census, It said that the overall undercount for the USA was 5.4%, the rate for New England was in the 2-4% range, and the rate for genealogists looking for a specific person was in the 5-10% range.
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Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver
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