Follow Friday - 1940 US Census Indexing Project

Follow Friday - 1940 US Census Indexing Project

I assume this will be my last post on this blog with respect to the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project - indexing the 1940 census. In recent days, both this project and the commercial indexing project at Ancestry.com have noted that the 'indexing is complete' in one form or another. I'll make reference to the post of Judy G. Russell, my favorite Legal Genealogist: Indexing: don't stop now as my recommended reading for the day. Read the entire post. She has expressed my sentiments better than I usually do.


Thanks to all who participated in the 1940 U.S. Census project at FamilySearch. I am amazed at how well it went. You can read Randy Seaver's analysis of the indexing projects from a link in Judy's post, above. She also encourages, as I do, each of us to keep doing some indexing regularly, to keep getting more records available, for each of us, online. Thank you for doing that.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

1940 US Census indexing project approaches 50% completion

1940 US Census indexing project approaches 50% completion


Thirteen states are now completed and searchable thanks to many volunteer indexers across the country (and the world) working under the 1940 US Census Community Project. I have done indexing, have you? As a family history and genealogy researcher, having the 1940 US Census images indexed and fully searchable is a wonderful and gratifying task. Not yet two months into the project and the FamilySearch tracker shows the work is approaching 50% completion (45.81% as I draft this article).

 Several other states are nearing completion. However, as with any project of this magnitude, on a volunteer basis, continued volunteer effort must be sustained. Whether you have done some indexing or have not 'gotten to it' yet, now is a good time to 'get on board' and do some indexing! Thank you in advance for your efforts.

132 million people were living in the 48 Continental United States in 1940. Tens of millions of people living in the United States in 1940 are still living today, making this a record set that connects people with recent family records. I don't mind saying that I am one of this group. I was a thrill to see my name listed as an infant, the first child of my parents. I was born in the middle of 1939. Reading the images of neighbors in the community that I grew up with was a real thrill.

A huge 'thank you' to everyone who has been doing indexing. Let's get to 100% in record time. Your efforts will be appreciated around the globe for years to come. Your children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren will thank you as well!  ;-)


Families are Forever! ;-)

1940 Census Update and Info

1940 Census Update and Info

The following infographic is provided my the 1940 Census blog; interesting stuff!  ;-)

There is still time to make a major contribution to indexing the 1940 Census images. Get Started, here, today. If you are already indexing, THANK YOU!  ;-)

Families are Forever!  ;-)

1940 US Census Indexing - Personal Update

1940 US Census Indexing - Personal Update

I was very pleased to see that Iowa images were now being indexed via FamilySearch and the the related Community Project we have all been promoting.

So, I went and indexed a few batches of Iowa images - in a county where some of my ancestors lived many years ago - Adair County. It was fun, felt good, and gave me an excuse to say:


If you haven't indexed any 1940 US Census images, yet, it is still not too late. Just go to the link, above, and Get Started, as it says (or, click on the logo, below!). More hands make the work go faster - for the benefit of everyone!

Families are Forever!  ;-)

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Genealogy Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Genealogy Easter Egg Hunt

It is a please to participate, tonight, in a Randy Seaver 'Saturday Night Genealogy Fun' project!

With my other activities, it has been hard to spend much time on the 1940 Census images - it was a pleasure to follow this Hunt, to do some things I wanted to do anyway!

I already knew that I wanted to look in my home town of Coon Rapids, Iowa, which I had already determined (I was in 14-33) to be 14-32. Tonight, I went to Ancestry.com, click 1940, and entered 14-33 as the ED. It showed 40 pages. I opened a new folder and copied each of the 40 images into it, as I will be doing much more work on a variety of people in this town. After a bit of experimenting, I realized I wanted to downsize the images to a width of 1500 pixels, for future reference (I'll finish doing that, later).

My target family was my (only living at the time) grandparents. Although I had saved the images, I decided to quickly scan the images on live, backing up from 40… on 32, I found them near the bottom of the page. Paul (1892-1968) and Dorothy KINNICK (1887-1982) were there with their youngest son, Edward, 11, on 2nd Street.

I added the following to my "To Be Checked" list:

1. Their entry on 1935 residence said: Same house - I personally know this not to be true… so this will be interesting to check. At the very least, they were living on a farm outside town in 1936, 37. I wondered when they moved to town: By 1940!

2. I need to check the address. I also need to ask each of my two uncles, including Edward (Buzzy), who are still alive, about these homes. I was already reminded earlier I need to do that, but this reinforces and allows me to be more specify in my questions (good for we older folks!).

Thanks, Randy!


Families are Forever!  ;-)

1940 US Census Update on Ancestry.com

1940 US Census Update on Ancestry.com

The following note was just in my email from Ancestry.com, about 8 pm CDT:

"Ancestry.com is proud to announce the first indexed states of the 1940 U.S. Census are now ready for searching. After 72 years being held from public view, the Nevada and Delaware 1940 Census is now available and searchable for free on Ancestry.com.  While the remainder of the U.S. states are digitized and available for viewing, Delaware and Nevada can now be easily searched by name, opening a window into the time of the great depression and WWII.  Information that can be found in this recently released census includes: name, address, value of home, occupation and employment status, income in 1939, education, marriage information and much more.

We are also in the final stage of uploading all 3.8 million images from the 1940 Census and that is slated to be completed by tomorrow morning (April 6). What’s more, to complement the launch of the 1940 Census, Ancestry.com is by providing free access to 1 billion hand-selected records from the 1940’s era through April 10.

For more information on the newly released 1940 U.S. Census, visit Ancestry.com/1940."

Progress. I'm not aware of any family in either state in 1940, but I'm going to go check it out, just to see how it feels. Perhaps you will as well! 


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Wordless (nearly) Wednesday - I'm in the 1940 census!

Wordless (nearly) Wednesday - I'm in the 1940 census!

Union Twp, Carroll County, Iowa - Leverne, 24, Eileen, 21. and William, son, age messed up.
Date of Census: May 1, 1940 - I would be become 1 year old on July 1, 1940.

Note that we lived nest to H.L., Kate and Ralph Preston. H.L. (Harry) was my Dad's mother's brother. We were at # 4 on this Mappy Monday post.


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Announcement of 1940 census image releases

Announcement of 1940 census image releases

The following press release has appeared in many place; if you missed it, here it is again, to remind you the process for seeing the 1940 census, and the continued need for volunteers!

1940 US Census Project Update

Get Ready, Get Set . . .

Thank you for your interest in the 1940 US Federal Census. This will be the last email you receive on behalf of the 1940 US Census Community Project before the images start to become available online.

What You Can Expect on April 2

The 1940 US Census Community Project is creating an index to the 1940 US Federal Census that will be made available for free. This is a joint effort between Archives, FindMyPast, FamilySearch, hundreds of societies, and tens of thousands of individual volunteers. The resulting index will be made available on the websites of the primary sponsors.

On the morning of Monday, April 2, NARA will release the digital images of the 1940 census to multiple parties, including the 1940 US Census Community Project. We will immediately start uploading these 3.6 million images to servers, where they will become available online over time. The ability for people to start accessing some of these images through the community project will take hours, not minutes.

As the first five states are loaded to servers, corresponding projects will be set up to index those images as state projects. We anticipate the first five states will be available for volunteer indexing by 10pm EDT.

The first five states to be loaded and ready for indexing on April 2 are the following:

• Delaware
• Virginia
• Kansas
• Oregon
• Colorado

The process of uploading images and setting up indexing projects by state will continue until all of the states and territories for this project are published, which may take up to two weeks to complete. Every day more images will be made available for browsing and indexing, so you will want to check back often to see which states are available.

The indexing process will be taking place through FamilySearch indexing. If you are already a FamilySearch indexing volunteer, these 1940 census projects will appear as new projects in the indexing software. No new software download or registration process is necessary to participate. If you are not currently a volunteer but want to participate in this historic opportunity, get started by downloading the indexing software and registering today.

What You Can Do Now

1. Download and install the indexing software
   Watch an Overview | Get Started
2. Learn how to index the 1940 US Census
   Watch a Video | Try the 1940 Census indexing simulation
3. Let others know about the 1940 US Census Community Project
   Like the Facebook page | Follow @The1940Census on Twitter | Follow the page on Google+ | Tell friends about the1940census.com

You can keep up with the latest updates by visiting the1940census.com often over the next few weeks.


Thank You!

The 1940 US Census Community Project Team

 

 

Families are Forever!  ;-)

An infographic on 1940 US Census from Archives.com

An infographic on 1940 US Census from Archives.com


Check out this neat infographic from Archives.com – one of the partners in the 1940 US Census Community Project!

Double click to see enlarged version...  ;-)



Families are Forever!  ;-)

Have you read the 1940 US Census blog? Try it!

Have you read the 1940 US Census blog? Try it!



To be reminded of the events surrounding the 1940 US Census there are few better sources that the Blog at the 1940 US Census Community Project.


Recent posts have included:

Top 5 Inventions of the 1940s
1940s Transportation
You Swingin'?
Events from the 19402 - McDonald's
1940 Census Top Posts - Week of March 5

Check it out! 


Families are Forever!  ;-)

Do you know the 50 questions that were used on the 1940 census?

Do you know the 50 questions that were used on the 1940 census?


Randy Seaver published these recently, so many of you have seen them - but did you stop and look at them in detail (His list is really easy to read - THANKS, Randy). Today, I want to focus on two sets of the questions:

1) 21 through 34, for Persons 14 Years Old and Over - Employment Status (and Occupation, Industry and Class of Worker), as well as Income in 1939, and

2) Supplementary Questions 35-50 asked only of a 5% sample of the population, for persons 14 years old and over (For persons enumerated on lines 14 and 29).


2) I am really anxious to see if any of the people I'm really interested in, close family and friends in the community, obviously, were asked these questions. Probably my favorite single thing to look for in the 1940 US Census. How about you?

1) I am interested to see if we really get the much broader set of answers that these questions suggest compared to what we got in 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 censuses. Who will report that they worked for the WPA, CCC, for example. What was the number of hours per week worked reported!

The occupational questions seem to be more detailed. Will the answers also be?

And, of course, the income questions. How will they be answered? How will they compare, among family and friends… there could be some 'juicy' analysis come out of this. What do you think?


Finally, it is interesting to look at the actual forms that were filled out. Have you looked at them?
I'm including the first of the five images here.
http://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/form1940.shtml - site of images of questionnaire

Families are Forever!  ;-)

I'm in it, are you? Your parents?

I'm in it, are you? Your parents?

I've agreed to be a 1940 Ambassador. Have you joined yet? We're now about 35 days away from the release of the 1940 US Census images. We all need to help do indexing in order to make our own research easier. I hope you will both Join the Effort and Spread the Word, if you have not done so already.

To see what others are doing, follow the 1940 Census blog Top Posts - this is week of Feb 20.


Families are forever!  ;-)

The 1940 Ambassadors - Happy to be one!

The 1940 Ambassadors - Happy to be one!

I am pleased to join the 1940 Census Community project as a 1940 Ambassador. As a 1940 Ambassador, on Saturday and/or Monday, most weeks, I will be posting information about the 1940 US Census and the social environment of the 1940 Census.

Earlier this week, I was pleased to publish two of my Examiner.com articles about the 1940 US Census. If you missed them, click here: first was about the April 2 website for images, and, second was about volunteering to do indexing.

These posts will be labelled: 1940 Census

And, have you signed up to participate? You do so at the 1940 Census site!

Families are Forever!  ;-)