Same person appears twice in one census?

[acwood]

I have a Sarah Wood appearing in two 1851 census entries about 2 miles apart:

HO107/1740 folio 356 p2
Cattel Bank, Kingsthorpe, Northants
Age 19, b West Haddon, Northants
(Parents James and Charlotte, and brothers Thomas and Josiah at same address)

HO107/1740 folio 209 p25
College Street, Northampton
Age 19, General servant, b West Haddon, Northants
(Henry Ager, age 28, shoemaker also at same address)

IGI has Sarah Wood, christened 17 June 1832, West Haddon, Northampton (Parents James & Charlotte)

The 1861 census has
RG9/938 folio 74 p3
13 Cock Lane, Kingsthorpe, Northampton
Henry Ager, widower, age 38, shoemaker
Sarah Wood, widow, age 28, housekeeper, b West Haddon

14 Cock Lane
James and Charlotte Wood

Henry Ager and Sarah Wood married in Kingsthorpe on April 17 1866 and Sarah's father is given as James Wood. Witnesses are Josiah and Mary Wood. Henry's condition on the certificate in widower but Sarah's is spinster.

It appears to me that it is the same Sarah Wood in both 1851 census entries. Has anyone else come across anything like this?

[teaurn]

It does happen occasionally.

Sometimes the returns are filled in early. Or people don't fully understand how to fill them in.

I have one where one of my cousins was crossed off of one census return which was his own family and he had spent that night with someone else in the village.

[Rena]

Someone else recently asked the same question and had several replies in the affirmative.

I've also had the same people recorded twice in the 1881 census; one entry was parents and children at their normal abode and the other entry was parent and child on the husband's boat.

[cherries]

One of my ancestors appears twice on the 1861 census.  Once at home with his family and also at sea on a fishing trawler. 

[little alison]

I had the same, and it enabled me to trace another part of the family - I worked out in the end that the nine-year-old girl who appeared twice, was staying with her uncle's family because her mother, recently remarried, had a new baby! - Alison

[nameless]

One of mine was in Bristol & Yeovil for the same census.

[acwood]

Thanks for the replies.

I think all the evidence pointed to it being the same Sarah, but nice to have confirmation that this can (and did) happen.

[coombs]

Yes I have an ancestor who appears twice in 1861 and one who appears twice in 1871, in prison and at his home village.

[RobinRedBreast]

Yes, this can happen sometimes, and be a bonus when it does.
Maybe the only one that you need to watch out for though would be the 1841 Census, because it does not show the town of birth, and only indicates if they were born in the county where the census was taken. I thought a sibling of my ancestor was enumerated twice, but it turns out this was probably a different person.