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Here are some interesting things I ran across while I helped index* the 1940 census:
  • The oldest person was 91, living in Michigan and she was born in Canada.
  • Just about every single page (40 names to a page) had at least 1 widow.  Many pages had at least two widows.
  • There seemed to be a high number of Juniors and Seniors!
  • In most neighborhoods people settled among their own nationality.
  • Young adults who were not married continued to live at home with their parents regardless of their age
  • The majority of people counted in the 1940 census lived in the same place in 1935.
  • I only ran across one set of twins…I believe they lived in Ohio and were 12 or 13 years old.  No other multiple births.
  • Many families had a “lodger”, “roomer” or an extended family member living with them. 
*I did not Index from every state.  These are just little things I noticed and should not be used as any sort of reliable research data!

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