Ancestry.com and The 1940 Census

Ancestry.com sent the following message today regarding the 1940 Census, which will be released in only 2 days!

The National Archives and Records Administration will open the 1940 U.S. Federal Census on April 2, 2012—the first time this collection will be made available to the public. Once we receive the census, we will begin uploading census images to our site so the public can browse them. Initially, this collection will be what we call a browse-only collection. This means a person can scroll through the pages of the census districts much like you would look at a microfilm or a book. At the same time, we will be working behind the scenes to create an index of the census that will eventually allow people to search for their family members by name as they currently can with all other censuses on Ancestry.com. Note also that the 1940 U.S. Federal Census will be accessible free of charge throughout 2012 on Ancestry.com.

The 1940 Census - "I'm In It"

While I'm not in the 1940 Census, both of my parents, all of my aunts and uncles, and all of my grandparents are in it. By 1940, only 2 of my great-grandparents are in it. And none of my gr-gr-grandparents.

Are you in the 1940 Census? What ancestors from your family are in it?

1940 Census Will Be Free on Ancestry!

The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com.

1940 U.S. Census to be Free on Ancestry.com

Great news in this announcement written by Ancestry.com:

PROVO, UTAH (August 17, 2011) - Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, today announced that both the images and indexes to the 1940 U.S. Federal Census will be made free to search, browse, and explore in the United States when this important collection commences streaming onto the website in mid-April 2012.

When complete, more than 3.8 million original document images containing 130 million plus records will be available to search by more than 45 fields, including name, gender, race, street address, county and state, and parents’ places of birth. It will be Ancestry.com’s most comprehensively indexed set of historical records to date.

Ancestry.com is committing to make the 1940 Census free from release through to the end of 2013, and by doing so hopes to help more people get started exploring their family history. As this census will be the most recent to be made publicly available, it represents the best chance for those new to family history to make that all-important first discovery.

“The release of the 1940 U.S. Census will be an exciting event for any American interested in learning more about their family history,” said Ancestry.com CEO Tim Sullivan. “By making this hugely important collection free to the public for an extended period, we hope to inspire a whole new generation of Americans to start researching their family history.”

“Ancestry.com is working to make the 1940 Census a truly unique interactive search experience...as well as the starting point to help new users easily get started on the world’s leading online family history resource. After finding that first family connection in the 1940 Census, we believe new users will be able to make amazing discoveries by searching our 7 billion digitized historical records, exploring the 26 million family trees created on Ancestry, and collaborating with our nearly 1.7 million subscribing members. We think that 2012 is going to be a great year of discovery for all family historians.”

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.. The 1940 Census

Randy's offered us yet another bit of fun this Saturday evening!!!

1)  Know that the 1940 United States Census will be released for public viewing on the National Archives website on Monday, 2 April 2012 (366 days from today!).  My understanding is that, when it is first released, that there will be no indexes available - we will have to search them the "old way" - with known addresses, finding enumeration districts from maps and websites, and then go page-by-page to find our folks.  Eventually, there will be indexes available, but we don't know how long after the release that will be.

2)  Which of your ancestral family members will be in the 1940 census?  Consider not just your ancestors, but also their siblings. 

3)  Where did your ancestral family members live in 1940 on Census Day?  Have you found all of the addresses in city directories or telephone books?  Please list the ones you know the addresses of, and the ones you need to find addresses for.

4)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, a comment to this blog post, or on a Facebook note or comment.

1. Unfortunately for most of my rural family in 1940, there won't be street addresses, and I will have to rely upon known farming neighbors in order to locate them!

2. This will be the very first released census that will contain both of my parents!!! Dad in West Virginia and Mom in Indiana! [I thrilled when I first found my grandparents in the Census records, I can only imagine seeing my parents names!!!]

3. Since neither of my parents homes had telephones in 1940, nor did their rural communities have directories, this really won't help me alot! Both families received their mail simply marked "General Delivery".

It doesn't promise to be an easy task to look through those un-indexed census records! But it's one in which I am raring at the bit to get into!!!