1940 US Census

Genealogist are getting increasingly impatient for the release of the 1940 Census on April 2, 2012. I am chairing a group that will be presenting a program, "Mining the Gold in the 1940 US Census", at the Annual Conference of the American Library Association in Anaheim at the end of June. That will be just two months after the release of the census images by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) but before the availability of name indexes for every state. Joel Weintraub will be the principal speaker on that program. Joel is perhaps best known to genealogists as the partner with Steve Morse in a wide array of 1-Step search engines. Weintraub has been working for over a year with a dedicated group of volunteers to provide an enumeration district approach to census information that will provide access to the information in this census before the name indexes are available and will supplement the search processes even after name indexes are provided. A panel from the NARA, Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, HeritageQuest and Archives.com will supplement Dr. Weintraub's presentation. For more on the 1-Step approach to this census see my earlier post.


Today Dick Eastman posted a link to a historical 10 minute video about that census for those of you who want to gear up to take full advantage of the treasures of the 1940 Census.