Family Historian User Group

As I collect census records, I'm finding several families where the household consists of parents, their married daughter, and grandchildren. The daughter is listed as 'married' not 'widowed' and so I wonder -- where was her husband on census day?

Since I grew up in a Navy town, one obvious answer might be 'in the military'. I suppose in 1930 in the US, a husband might not be with his family if he is looking for employment somewhere else. In some cases, I've found the husband in the hospital. And in more modern cases, a couple might be separated. But for census returns in the mid-to-late 1800s, I would not expect many couples to have separated because they were divorcing yet. And of course I do realize that someone might tell a census taker that they are married when they never were and there is no husband. (One census record I've collected helpfully notes 'illegitimate child' in the occupation field for the child!)

What search techniques have been useful to you when looking for elusive husbands?

Jan

ID:2845

I had one case where on every census the wife is with the children - no sign of the husband. She was described as a Butler's wife, so he was obviously with the family he worked for on census night.
Only by getting the birth certificate of one of the children did I find out what his name was, and then managed to track down the marriage - both names were spelt wrong on the marriage entry which is why I couldn't find it without knowing the husband's name. (and the marriage was in London whereas the wife & family were always in warwick on teh censuses)
I have a couple of others where the head of the houshold has a married daughter in law and a grandchild with them on consecutive censuses and it has taken some time to workout which of the sons is the father of this grandchild. Often the best place is to look for the birth/baptism records of the grandchild (& possibly the marriage certificate of this child if you can identify it to see who is down as the father)

Jeremy

jmurphy said:...I would not expect many couples to have separated...

We have quite a lot of cases in the late 19th century where the husband is away from home, presumably for work (and one favourite example where the husband is found at the pub in the next village on 3 consecutive censuses - he must have popped home occasionally though because they keep having more children).

The pub example is funny! (And actually, that's the sort of example I had in mind when I started the thread.)

Jan