This great question was posed at a recent program – and the answer is yes. Most genealogists use only the first page of the 1840 census population schedule. After all, that’s the page with the names of the head of household and most of the marks indicating who falls in the household falls into what age ranges. But there’s a second page to the form.
That second page includes the name and age of any Revolutionary War pensioner living in the household. That name may not always be the name of the veteran. Keep in mind, widows could receive the pension of their late husband. Yet, the presence of a name is a strong indicator that there’s a pension for someone in that family. Once you have a name, you can search the Revolutionary War era digitized pensions on Fold3 – and hopefully learn more about your ancestor’s story.