I found something interesting when I was searching all of my Vincent family in the 1940 census. It concerns my grandfather Elbert Tracey “Shorty” Vincent. Just to note, one thing that made it slightly difficult to find him when I first started searching for the Vincent family was due to his showing up as Albert on census records (my only guess is that when the family said “Elbert” the enumerator thought it was “Albert” with a Southern drawl). Anyway, the following records (yes, more than one for him) have him listed as Albert.
The first time Shorty appears on the 1940 census is exactly where I expected to find him. Well, almost. Though I expected him to be in Kentucky, I had also expected him to have already married Louise Rose, but apparently not. Nope, instead I find him living in Hanson, Magistrate District 5, Hopkins County, Kentucky. The census has an enumeration date of April 2, 1940, but the enumerator was nice enough to make a note that this particular part of the census was actually enumerated on April 3, 1940. The information provided on this census for Shorty is:
Name: Albert (sic) Vincent
Relationship to Head-of-Household: Son
Sex: Male
Race: White
Age: 26
Marital Status: Single
Attended School: No
Grade Completed: 3rd
Birthplace: Kentucky
Place of Residence in 1935: Same Place
Worked for Pay: Yes
Hours Worked: 40
Occupation: Laborer
Industry: Farm
Class of Worker: PW (private worker)
Weeks Worked: 52
Income: 365
Other Income: No
Living in the same household are as listed: Martin Vincent (Martin Riley Vincent, age 58 years, Shorty’s father), Lucy (age 58 years, Shorty’s mother), Everett (age 22 years, Shorty’s brother) and Garland (age 17 years, Shorty’s brother).
Now, you may have noticed that some of the information listed above for Shorty is highlighted in a different color. This is because the next census he is on has completely different information. I’m not really sure why.
So, on the census dated April 17, 1940 on Lee Holler Road, District 1, Stewart County, Tennessee the information given for Shorty is:
Name: Albert (sic) Vinson (sic)
Relationship to Head-of-Household: Brother-In-Law
Sex: Male
Race: White
Age: 27
Marital Status: Single
Attended School: No
Grade Completed: 3rd
Birthplace: Tennessee
Place of Residence in 1935: Rent, Stewart County, Tennessee
Worked for Pay: Yes
Hours Worked: 24
Occupation: Laborer
Industry: Farm
Class of Worker: PW (private worker)
Weeks Worked: 30
Income: 70
Other Income: No
Living in the same household are listed as: Frank Barfield (Charles Franklin Barfield, age 36 years, Shorty’s brother-in-law), Edna (Edna Maye Vincent, age 32 years, Shorty’s sister) and Charles (age 8 years, Frank and Edna’s son, Shorty’s nephew).
So, what’s up with the discrepancies? Edna, Shorty’s sister, is also listed as having been born in Tennessee, but she wasn’t. She was born in Kentucky with the rest of the children. And what about the questions pertaining to work and income in 1939? I suppose it’s possible that Albert Vincent and Albert Vinson are not the same person, but that would be a pretty big co-inky-dink, don’t you think?
