1940 U.S. Census: Liebross Inconsistencies

Well, my top genealogy goal yesterday was to find my mother and uncle, their parents, and some of my grandmother's siblings at 31 Colin Place. And last night I did find them when Ancestry loaded the EDs for Brooklyn. 

NY ED 24-1839 [click to see readable version]

The whole 31 Colin Place clan was there: the Wilson family (Joseph, Tillie, Norma and Ira) are on lines 24-27; and four of Tillie's Liebross siblings (Rose, Jerome J, Irving, and Celia) and Jerry's son Stanford are on lines 28-32. My grandmother Tillie was the informant.


I don't know what to make of the ages shown for the adults in the house.  My grandfather's would be correct: all the records I have for him are amazingly consistent that he was born in 1889.  But all the rest are apocryphal. Tillie was recorded as 10 years old when she emigrated to the USA in 1898. That would make her about 52 in 1940. Rose was 9 when she emigrated. So, she would have been about 50, not 41.

But I think my favorite ageless wonder was Great Aunt Celia. Ever since the 1920 U.S. Census, Celia had been getting younger. According to the family's manifest, she was born about 1894 and was the sixth of eight children (the two youngest being Jerry and Irving). Between 1910 and 1920 she aged only 8 years.  Between 1920 and 1930, and 1930 and 1940, she only had six birthdays each decade.  She was reported as 36 in 1940 and had miraculously become the youngest of the Liebross siblings!

I was a bit surprised to find Jerry and Stanford at 31 Colin Place in 1940 since other information I'd gathered indicated they'd likely be at 921 Montgomery Avenue, Brooklyn where Jerry also had his dental office. Since I'd already determined the ED for 921 Montgomery, I figured I'd look there, anyway.

NY ED 2102A [click to see readable version]

I'm glad I did. There they are again (lines 1-3)! Jerry and Stanford were counted twice in the 1940 U.S. Census and Jerry's wife/Standford's mother, Sadie, was the informant at 921 Montgomery. Sadie was hospitalized for the rest of her life some time during Stan's childhood. I now know that event had not occurred before April 1940. It did occur sometime before Jerry died in 1948.