Journey to His Past

Source: 1940 U.S. Federal Census, population schedule, Ward 2, Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, enumeration district (ED) 86-105, p7A, household number 124, Bertrand Corcoran; digital images, National Archives (www.archives.com : accessed 15 April 2012).

Are you like me and want to know who the people are that are living with our ancestors in the census records?  Often, I have found that those living with people in the census are related to the family being recorded.  This is not true this time.  I found Kirk's grandparents, and mother, in the 1940 United States Census records and was curious about the 18 year old woman that was recorded with their family.  

Helen Link was listed as a lodger in the household of Bertrand Corcoran.  Who is Helen Link?  I had never heard the name, so I went to my Corcoran expert, my mother-in-law.  She told me Helen Link was someone who was attending college in Grand Rapids, Michigan and rented a room from the Corcoran's.  Helen helped around the house when not in school.  

Although, the census taker recorded that Helen Link was living in the same house in 1935, that is not true.  Helen Link was a college student that needed a place to live and found the Corcoran place.  She is not related to the Corcoran's.

Did your ancestors take boarders or lodgers in and are recorded in the census?