Did Greer Garson ever work as a census taker?

Question

my grandmother had a visit with greer garson. i was told she was a census taker and have also been told my grandma won a contest. i am hoping someone can help me. greer garson came to her home in west virginia. i know the event happened just want to clear up the details.

Answer 1

cool story.. I can't give info to verify.  The key is that the census was taken in 1930, 1940, 1950.  1930 is open for viewing (at ancestry), so IF that happened, you might try to locate the copy of grandma's neighborhood, and confirm the name of the enumerator at the top.  You can't get '40 or '50 for that.

The other option that I can think of.. the local paper might have had a story on that.  If you can even come close to a date.. try talking to the librarian or historical society to see if that will turn anything up.

Answer 2

A little triangulation.

She wasn't an actress in 1930, so it would have been 1940-1980 when this happened (she was disabled after that, and much too long out of her career to be on a PR blitz)

1940-60 was the height of her career.

All of those census years had an April 1 reporting date and mail-in responses in the first stage. So they would have started the PR blitz in February/March when the mailings were going out. The second stage was the door-to-do enumeration to pick up anyone who didn't mail in their response. It is very possible that during that first week in April they sent out celebrity enumerators to draw attention to the effort and raise responses to the knocks on the door.

There are two ways to confirm the story. The Census Bureau does actually have a formal PR unit that has to keep records of all of their efforts. They could confirm the story. But if you want details, visit the library in your grandmother's town and pull the newspaper films for the first of April in 1940, 1950 and 1960 and see what the press reported about the blitz.