Friday, March 16, 2012

1940 Census Release


Well, if you haven't heard "it's big news in my genealogy world" come April 2, 2012.

Genealogists are eagerly anticipating the release of the 1940 census records. These records will add another resource for researching your family tree.


Congress passed privacy statutes regarding the censuses that restrict any identifying information from being release to the public for 72 years. The 1940 enumeration date was April 1, 1940 and the records will be released April 2, 2012. The National Archives and Records Administration, (NARA) which is the custodian of the census information, will release the information on that date in digital form.


Family Search (http://www.familysearch.org/), in collaboration with other leading genealogy organizations, will begin publishing the 1940 Census online for FREE on April 2! Unlike previous census years, the 16th population census of the United States will be released in the form of free digital images. Census records from 1790 through 1930 are currently available.

I will be volunteering as a transcriber with about ten thousand other energetic genealogists! You too can volunteer to help index this census if you go here: www.familysearch.org/1940census
and specify your favorite state to index. The states with the most votes will be put up to be indexed first.



You can download the free indexing software at https://indexing.familysearch.org/ there is even a commercial on YouTube that you can watch. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaypvLmEQDE&feature=related.

No comments: