Is it possible for a person to appear in two different places in the same census?
Initially, I found this 1875 census record for Bernt Martinsen: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/census/person/pf01052111007977
This is the town right next to where my great-grandmother was born to Bernt Martinsen, unkarl and Gunvor Stengrimsdatter, pige (https://urn.digitalarkivet.no/URN:NBN:no-a1450-kb20060912070343.jpg #101)
I started tracing him from the information from these two records and determined that he was Bernt Martinsen Ostby/Mangset see LZHG-MGH, who other researchers determined had a couple wives and at least one other illegitimate child.
Now today, I find another 1875 census for a Bernt Martinsen:
https://www.digitalarkivet.no/census/person/pf01052065003944
This is clearly the first marriage listed for ID LZHG-MGH including the son. The wife doesn't die until 1896...I just found her death today. His mother, Eli Bergersdatter and her husband, Gudbrand Gudbrandsen are also in the household, but it shows Bernt first, so he is head of household, right?
So, is it possible that it really is the same man showing up in two different censuses even though one is a head of household and the other is a worker on a farm?
I have not found any other Bernt Martinsen in the Sør-Odal records.
Answers
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I have rarely found the same person twice in a census but then only with notations of either being away from home (fr - fraverende) or at temporary residence (mt - midlertidig)
You are sure to have found before that information in the census can be off, particularly ages. Looking at the 1865 census, there are two Bernt Martinsens, both born and living in Sør Odal. Neither show as born in 1846. Instead one is listed as born in 1841 and one in 1847. I suspect that these are the same two you found in the 1875 census.
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my 3rd-great grandfather appeared in the 1900 United States census two times (apparently simultaneously living with two of his kids, each of whom where married and living in different cities).
I see no reason why it couldn't happen in Sweden also, but it is not a conclusion I would jump to without further evidence that they are the same individual
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