Daily AncestorD
D in the marital status column of the 1900 to 1950 census means divorced, not dead.
From 1900 on, the census recorded marital status with letters, and D always meant divorced. The 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940 and 1950 instructions all use it.
Because d. means died in many other records, D in a census is easy to misread. A living person on the census list cannot be dead, so a D in that column points you to divorce records in a county court.
As seen in a recordLine of the 1920 census
Lowe, Edna, Head, F, W, 45, D
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "D." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/census-d. Last checked 2026-10-10.