Thankful there is NO index for the 1940 census!

I can only speak for myself, but if you're reading, I wonder if you've experienced any of the same feelings this week.

It's been just five days now that family history enthusiasts (beginner, intermediate and professional alike) have had access to the nearly 4 million digital images that make up the 1940 Census. In that time, there have been a flood of news articles noting the surge in online traffic to leading websites and the growing interest in family history in recent years. This is all great to see. Also great to see the volunteer spirit that is behind the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project, a national service project to index 1940 census images.

I don't recall for certain the first time I tried to find my family in U.S. census records, but think it was about 1984-1985 while I was living just 15 minutes or so from the Northeast Regional archives in Waltham, MA (just west of Boston). Something about looking through census records and passenger lists for hours on microfilm that captivated me. Still does in some respects.

In recent years, many family historians, myself included, have been spoiled by the ability to visit a web site, type a name or two into a search box, and within a few minutes we often find ourselves connected with digital images of historical records containing details for our family. That's certainly great and a huge time saver, but I'm realizing something this week and wonder if I'm alone or not in my thought process.

Online access to such a variety of information has made me a bit lazy. There, I've put it out there for all to read. This past few days, I've found myself remembering what it used to be like to do real research. With no index of the 1940 census, I've been forced to look at birth and marriage certificates, city directories, maps (both old and new), and a variety of other sources to pinpoint the location of one or more family members in/around April 1940. With that information in hand, the amazing One-Step Tools (especially the Unified 1940 Census ED Finder by Steve Morse, Joel Weintraub, and volunteers) certainly are a tremendous time saver.

This experience has reminded me why I've grown to love genealogy research over so many years. I learn so much in the process. While looking for family members, as well as a few celebrities, I found myself doing a lot of unexpected side-reading this week. Reviewing documents or pages or unrelated articles from the 1930s, just to help me better understand things. What fun to learn things by accident. To set off looking for one thing and find several others in the process. Sometimes never even finding what it was I was searching for in the first place, but still I learned something about a different time and place.

Tonight I had nearly a dozen people (actually, I should say families) I wanted to find listed on 1940 population schedules. I had a 150% success rate! Found all the families I was looking for, but because I was forced to browse through many pages to get to them, I made quite a few accidental discoveries in the process. Turns out there is some truth to people who marry the girl next door. Even if she didn't exactly next door, I found a few situations where the future bride and groom were living less than 100 lines away from each other on census schedules.

One exciting moment was finding my dad's family at 52 Lafayette Street, Waterbury CT (ED 5-245). The 8th of 10 children, they are ALL living in the household. The ONLY census that will ever show his family in this fashion, the children ranged in age from 22 to 9 months. Had the census been 1 year earlier, we'd miss the youngest child. A year or two later, and several sons were off to war. To find my 57-year old grandfather with his 42-year old wife and all 10 children, that's a special document to have.

Certainly it will be great to have a name index in a few months time. That will help me find a few of the stubborn cases for which I can't seem to find a street address, but in the mean time, I'm exciting to sharpen my entire base of research skills AND my skills of critical thinking for how to approach a problem. Both had a layer of dust on them, something made possible by the 'search box syndrome' so common now in genealogy.

Happy Hunting!!

1940 Census - So many images, so little time!

With nearly 4 million images now available online for browsing, it's been amazing to see how excited the genealogical community is about the 1940 census. Even 'genea-friends' from other parts of the globe seem to share in our excitement. They are, after all, our kind of people too. The type who understand our passion. I was honored and thankful to have a virtual front-row seat for the some of the events as they unfolded on launch day in Washington D.C.

As an official spokesperson for The 1940 U.S. Census Community Project, I took a train from my home in Connecticut yesterday (Sunday, 01 April) and rode the rails for nearly 5 hours to our nations capitol. I thought about my great grandparents and how they would have had to travel by rail to central Connecticut after their arrival through the Port of New York. Although my trip was s little different with WiFi, a laptop, an iPad, iPhone, Google+ Hangouts while zipping down the tracks.

Today was the day many of us has been waiting for. As much as I wanted to be at my laptop, ready to pounce on images from Connecticut, I sat in a television studio somewhere in central-DC, being hooked up to locations throughout the United States for live television and radio interviews - more than two dozen in all. It seems the interest in family history has never been stronger and we have never been more fortunate given the technology available to us as we pursue our hobby/passion.

As I type this, I'm on an AmTrak train back to Connecticut. It's 7:30pm Eastern and within the last 30 minutes, I've just seen my first 1940 Census Population Schedule neatly filled in with names and all the pertinent details. This particular census enumerator (Marjory E. Boman) did a wonderful job listing the names of the many residents of the Beth-El General Hospital, Colorado Springs (El Paso County), Colorado. No connection to me or my family, but I really wanted to see an image and this is the first that was available. It came courtesy of FamilySearch.org, one of 5 states they currently had images loaded for. Other sites (Archives.gov, Archives.com, and Ancestry.com) had some images loaded, but I've not yet been able to view any. FindMyPast.com and MyHeritage.com will also be offering images for the U.S. Census, but neither appeared to have any 1940 images loaded as of yet.

I've seen a few Tweets, Facebook, and Google+ posts which are critical of the launch efforts. I'm disappointed to see that. I know that most family history enthusiasts are thrilled and very appreciative of the hard work that all the organizations (and so many unnamed individuals) have done for many, many months to prepare for today. Let's take a moment to THANK them for their efforts, not ridicule them for the fact that sometimes even the best of technology can't respond to our high expectations of every record, free, full searchable, at precisely the minute of launch for millions of us who want to view our own grandparents records.

» Thank you U.S. Census Bureau.
» Thank you National Archives and Records Administration.
» Thank you Ancestry.com
» Thank you Archives.com (Inflection)
» Thank you FamilySearch.org
» Thank you FindMyPast.com (brightsolid)
» Thank you MyHeritage.com
» Thank you SteveMorse.org (Steve Morse, Joel Weintraub, and all their volunteers!!) and a very sincere thank you to the many, many others whom I may not have mentioned here, but only because I don't even know all that goes on behind the scenes to pull off something this big.

It's a fun day for our industry, let's celebrate it. The stories will unfold in the weeks, months and years to come as a result of the data we will find in these 1940 census records!

1940 Census Preparation - Eye Opening!

Like the cobblers children who had no shoes or more recently, the contractor carpenter's home which has the unfinished addition that's been an ongoing project for years . . . well, I decided tonight would be the night I finally started my own personal preparation for the upcoming 1940 Census release.

Actually, I guess last night was the night I started, but I didn't realize it at the time. I placed a phone call to my Great Aunt living in Florida to check on some logistics of her pending move back north. Part way through the call, she began to ask how things were and if I was busy with work. I mentioned the 1940 Census and then asked her if she recalled where she was living in April 1940. She'll be 89 in May, so I knew she'd be in the census and I was fairly certain I already knew the street address where she would be listed, but I'm so glad I asked.

Without hesitation, she gave me the exact street address — 12 Oak Street, Waterbury CT. She would have been 16 years old at the time. Then came the bonus information. She said that at the time, her mom and dad (Italian Immigrant parents) were living there, but that her dad would have likely answered the questions because although her mom had learned to speak English by this point, certain words likely used by Census workers may have been unfamiliar to her. She also said her older brother John would have likely been living at home, as well as her older sister Ida, but not her sister Terry. She recalled that Terry (age 25) was living in New York City and had a job as a waitress near Radio City Music Hall at a place called the 'Down Under' restaurant. My aunt shared stories of visiting and said that Terry only worked lunch times because the business men gave very good tips.

It was an interesting conversation and my Aunt Rita seemed very interested in having me share the details of what I could find, as soon as I could find it. She also shared details for other families living in the 2-family home, as well as details about some neighbors. I realized how lucky I was and also my years of training meant that I was taking notes throughout the entire phone conversation.

Tonight I printed out a blank 1940 Census Form and filled it in based on information I had for the family from 1930, but also using my pedigree chart and family group sheets. I also used the great One Step Tool by Steve Morse and Joel Weintraub to find the 1940 Census Enumeration District for the family. The images of these descriptive books are already online and report a total population for this E.D. of just 1,591. At 40 names per side of each population schedule, that is only 40 images I'll have to inspect when April 2nd finally arrives!

One last observation too that caught my attention. I always tend to think of my ancestors as older people. In this case, my Great Aunt is the young girl and her parents — my Great Grandparents are the head of household and spouse. If listed by her correct age, my Great Grandmother will be listed as age 49, exactly the same age as me as I write this article. My Great Aunt at age 16 is nearly the same age as my youngest daughter sleeping just a few rooms down the hall. I'm reminded that my ancestors were young parents and while their lives were different from mine, i'm sure they laughed, cried, walked, napped, talked, and enjoyed their family as I do mine.

Can't wait until the release of the 1940 Census to see how close my form matches that of the Census Enumerator - and oh how I wish my Great Grandmother will be listed on one of the lines for Supplementary Questions! That will be a wonderful bonus!!

38 Days and Counting!

February is rapidly drawing to a close and March will surely raise the excitement level among U.S. family history enthusiasts anxiously awaiting the release of the 1940 census. Reading through historical news accounts reminds us that more than just a few of the questions asked on the 1940 Population Schedules were met with some controversy. Many voiced objection to questions pertaining to their personal income, while others failed to understand the need to ask questions of women regarding the number of times they were married, age at first marriage, and the number of children born. As genealogists, we're please to read such clues about our family that have been hidden from view for 72 years, but often it's easy to forget how much of an invasion of personal privacy it may have been by 1940 standards.

140 Days to 1940 Release!

When I first created this blog, even I was counting the time until the release of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census in months. The number in days seemed too far away, but now we're just 140 days and counting so my postings will increase with frequency and specific detail as the entire genealogy industry seems poised to share in the excitement of this historic release. In May 1999, we saw the release of www.familysearch.org and the entire Internet, it seemed, was slowed to a crawl. Then in April 2001, the launch of www.ellisisland.org and nearly 25 million passenger arrivals through the Port of New York at Ellis Island from 1892 to 1924 was another test of the Internet and website scalability. There were more than 132 million Americans enumerated in the 1940 U.S. Federal Census and their many descendants are eager to view family details which have been kept hidden from view for the last 72 years. I fully expect this to be one of the — if not THE biggest — Internet events ever! Anywhere! I'm sure every major traditional media outlet (television, newspapers, and magazine) will also give prominent coverage come April 2012.

294 Days - Joel Weintraub presents at SoCal Jamboree!

It's great to know there are others who are just as excited as I have been about the 1940 U.S. Federal Census. Joel Weintraub, Steve Morse, and dozens of volunteers have created a tremendous set of tools which you'll want to know about. See stevemorse.org/census for more details.

751 Days and Counting!

The Countdown has Begun!
If you're one of the many dedicated (some say obsessive) family historians carefully inspecting every known paper trail left by your ancestors . . . then you're probably aware of the importance and excitement of census records. In the United States, it's a once a decade happening (1790, 1800, 1810, etc.) and then things are kept under wraps for 72 years.

Genealogists celebrate the 72 year anniversary because that is when the information and clues about their families becomes available for public inspection. In 1940, the United States conducted the sixteenth census of the population living within the then forty-eight states.

This blog will be dedicated to sharing information about the 1940 Census and will serve as an interactive platform for others to share their thoughts about this major genealogical event.