I Found Them In 1940 And I Still Don't Know the Answer

     One reason I was looking forward to the 1940 Census was because I was curious about the organization of my Granny's household at the time. I knew that her parents had separated and wanted to know if they had divorced.  Their death certificates give conflicting information: one stating they were married, the other divorced.

     On Apr 2nd I found my granny, Sarah Britt, her father, Nathan, and brother, Evoid. They were living in Elbert County, Georgia and listed only two pages away from the man Sarah would marry that August (yes, she was 14). There was no sign of Sarah's mom, LeDora, nor her two sisters, Ollie and Helen.  And what is Nathan's marriage status. Married? Divorced? Oddly, it looks like AS. What on earth...?  (Also, I will not blame the indexer who will not be able to figure out Evoid's name)

     Maybe if I could find LeDora it would help clear things up? It took me two more days to find her, having browsed through 10 (!!!) enumeration districts to do so. But I did find her, living with her oldest daughter and her husband, as well as her youngest daughter. Maybe her marriage status will provide an answer? Nope; its a scribbled mess. (Also, I'm a little concerned that Ollie was 15 and married to a 35 year old)

     With the help of some folks on Twitter, during the Ancestry.com chat with Crista this afternoon, I think we've figured out Nathan's marriage status. They started to write 'M' for married but stopped after only writing the front flick. They crossed out the flick and then wrote an 'S'.

     For LeDora, it looks like they wrote 'M' and then scribbled it out. They then wrote something else - a '7'? That doesn't make sense. EDITED UPDATE: While watching DEARMyrtle's webinar tonight I learned that it is in fact a crossed out M with a 7. It turns out that the 'M' was recorded in the field and an office worker crossed it out and wrote 7 because there was no spouse listed. Voila!

     But I guess it does imply a few things. They were not divorced at the time, otherwise they would have just said so. However, they probably did not consider themselves married either. And I'm kinda sad that the kids got split up like that. But those are the facts of life I suppose.