It hurts to index this

While indexing a page in the 1940 census for Dawson County, Texas, I found the following 1935 residence information for Clara Owen.

The handwriting is perfectly readable:  Bartlesville – Choctaw – Oklahoma.

Unfortunately, it’s wrong.  I know that, and I don’t even know Clara Owen.  You see, I grew up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, so I know that Bartlesville is not in Choctaw County.  It’s in Washington County.

The two counties are not even close to each other.


A part of me REALLY wants to index the county as Washington, but I won’t for a couple of reasons:

• It’s possible that the city is wrong instead of the county.
• The arbitrator would absolutely consider it an error.