The 1910 U.S. Census entry for my great-grandparents has always been a mystery to me. Walter and Martha Cartwright had recently moved from their homestead in Mylo, North Dakota, back to northern Indiana. Their census information contains a puzzle. Four children are listed; the oldest having been born before the move to North Dakota and three having been born during the homestead years. The puzzle is that this is the only time the daughter Marie ever shows up on any document or record. No living family member has any memory of there having been a daughter named Marie. For a while I wondered if the family's information had been provided by a neighbor and the neighbor was fuzzy on family details but it seems unlikely that someone would imagine a baby.
I think the children's recorded ages hold the answer. Irene (recorded as Irena) was born on 26 Oct 1909. The census is dated 22 Apr 1910. The time lapse between those two dates is only 177 days, or 5 months and 27 days. Irene's age should have been recorded as 6/12 and not 16/12 years. Could Marie have been adopted? No, the census says that Martha gave birth to 4 children and 4 are alive. If Marie was 6/12 years old she would have been a twin to Irene but again, there's no evidence or family lore that Martha ever gave birth to twins.
My theory is enumerator error.
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