Genealogy Lesson 24 - 1940 US Census

Census day was April 1, 2010.  That is the day when any person living in the United States should be counted on an actual census document.  If a child was born on March 31, 2010, they would be recorded.  If a child was born on April 2, 2010, they would not be recorded.  The census will be a snapshot of life as it existed on April 1, 2010.

The purpose of a federal census is to record the number of people living in a specific area.  The government wants to know how many people live in each city, county, township, state, etc.  Population for an area is critical when it comes to the distribution of federal funds for hospitals, schools, emergency services, bridges, roads, etc.  Census forms will be mailed to you in March and must be filled out and returned.  If you do not fill out the form, a census taker will literally show up on your doorstep and make you fill it out.  There are only ten questions on the 2010 form and should be fairly easy to answer.

The data that we provide will be maintained and used by the government but most of the information we provide will be well guarded.  It is against federal law for anyone to divulge a name, address (including GPS coordinates), phone number or Social Security number off a census form.  Census Bureau employees are sworn to secrecy for life, not to disclose any confidential information.  Breaking this oath can result in a $250,000 fine, five years of imprisonment, or both.  With that in mind, I doubt anyone will be talking!  Actual census forms do not become public record for 72 years.  That means future genealogists cannot see the form that you fill out until April 1, 2082.

The next census that we can view as genealogists would be the 1940 census.  It will be available on April 2, 2012, that is if you go to the National Archives and wait in line.  When the 1930 census came out in 2002, Ancestry.com did a great job of scanning the images and getting them online within a few weeks.  They literally started putting images online within hours of the census being released.  It obviously took some time for indexes to be compiled but you could at least browse records for a given county or city.  I would imagine that the 1940 census will be a big deal for them as well.

From what I have seen, the 1940 census is quite similar to the 1920 and 1930 censuses as most of the same information is provided.  Unique features include recording where each person lived in 1935, recording the highest level of education completed and also detailed occupational information that included a person's 1939 income.  As an interesting addition, anyone recorded on lines 14 and 29 of the census form were pulled out as a random sample.  Those individuals were subject to around 20 additional questions that should prove to be quite interesting.  Researchers are going to hope their ancestor fell on lines 14 or 29.  It could be like winning the lottery when that happens!

One last thing that I noticed about the 1940 census, the person in the family who provided the information is supposed to have a circled X beside their name.  That might not seem important but it will lend a lot toward weighing the accuracy of the information provided.  In past censuses, we do not know who provided the information.  It could have been an older child, a grandmother, the neighbor or a border.  At least this time we can see if the husband or wife provided the actual information.  And just think...it is less than 1,000 days until we get to see it for ourselves!

Census day 2010 and the 1940 census in 2012

A topic that you will hear more about in days to come is the 2010 census.  Census day will be April 1, 2010.  That is the day when any person living in the United States should be counted on an actual census document.  If a child was born on March 31, 2010, they would be recorded.  If a child was born on April 2, 2010, they would not be recorded.  The census will be a snapshot of life as it existed on April 1, 2010.

The purpose of a federal census is to record the number of people living in a specific area.  The government wants to know how many people live in each city, county, township, state, etc.  Population for an area is critical when it comes to the distribution of federal funds for hospitals, schools, emergency services, bridges, roads, etc.  Census forms will be mailed to you in March and must be filled out and returned.  If you do not fill out the form, a census taker will literally show up on your doorstep and make you fill it out.  There are only ten questions on the 2010 form and should be fairly easy to answer.

The data that we provide will be maintained and used by the government but most of the information we provide will be well guarded.  It is against federal law for anyone to divulge a name, address (including GPS coordinates), phone number or Social Security number off a census form.  Census Bureau employees are sworn to secrecy for life, not to disclose any confidential information.  Breaking this oath can result in a $250,000 fine, five years of imprisonment, or both.  With that in mind, I doubt anyone will be talking!  Actual census forms do not become public record for 72 years.  That means future genealogists cannot see the form that you fill out until April 1, 2082.

The next census that we can view as genealogists would be the 1940 census.  It will be available on April 2, 2012, that is if you go to the National Archives and wait in line.  When the 1930 census came out in 2002, Ancestry.com did a great job of scanning the images and getting them online within a few weeks.  They literally started putting images online within hours of the census being released.  It obviously took some time for indexes to be compiled but you could at least browse records for a given county or city.  I would imagine that the 1940 census will be a big deal for them as well.

From what I have seen, the 1940 census is quite similar to the 1920 and 1930 censuses as most of the same information is provided.  Unique features include recording where each person lived in 1935, recording the highest level of education completed and also detailed occupational information that included a person’s 1939 income.  As an interesting addition, anyone recorded on lines 14 and 29 of the census form were pulled out as a random sample.  Those individuals were subject to around 20 additional questions that should prove to be quite interesting.  Researchers are going to hope their ancestor fell on lines 14 or 29.  It could be like winning the lottery when that happens!

One last thing that I noticed about the 1940 census, the person in the family who provided the information is supposed to have a circled X beside their name.  That might not seem important but it will lend a lot toward weighing the accuracy of the information provided.  In past censuses, we do not know who provided the information.  It could have been an older child, a grandmother, the neighbor or a border.  At least this time we can see if the husband or wife provided the actual information.  And just think…it is only two years until we get to see it for ourselves!

Ancestry.com makes "Improvements to All U.S. Federal Censuses"

Image by David Clow - Maryland via Flickr

Ancestry.com just sent me an email that stated: "This year, in addition to releasing hundreds of new collections, we have launched an initiative to improve images for all 15 U.S. federal censuses that are publicly available (1790 through 1930) and indexes for seven (1850, 1860, 1870, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930) with additional fields and alternate names added. In the past six months we launched the first improvements for the 1880 and 1900 censuses. This month we've re-launched 1810.

When you review the collection, you'll notice cleaner, clearer images for every record. We highly recommend revisiting your ancestors in these collections, as you may find images that were too faded to read can now be seen clearly; images that were too dark are now legible; images that were slightly blurred are crystal clear; and names obscured by tape marks are now easy to decipher."

I am glad they are doing this work. Seems a little redundant, like they should have done a better job the first time around, but maybe technology has changed since then. I appreciate their efforts and commend their work.

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Census Day...why is the exact date important?

One of the most fundamental things you need to know with American genealogy would be when and what is census day. Census day is the exact date upon which a decennial (10-year) United States Federal Census reflects an image of the nation's people. It is a snapshot of the US population on that given date in time.

This is the key thing to remember....there are two dates on every page of the United States census. Those dates are the census day and the date on which the census was taken. THESE ARE TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT AND SEPARATE DATES!!!

Think of it like this...

There was no possible way for every person in America to be recorded on the census on just one day. It took weeks, perhaps even months, to record everyone in a major city or sprawling county. The date that census taker actually recorded a household is written in his handwriting at the top of each census page (at least after 1850). This date does not really mean anything to a researcher. The only date that matters is the "census day" date and here is why...

For example, in 1850 census day was June 1. If someone died on June 5th and the census taker showed up on June 10th, the deceased person would have been included on the census as if they had not died! They were alive on census day, the day that was "frozen" as an image of the United States and its population.

What does this mean to a researcher? If a person was listed on the 1850 census, you cannot assume that he did not die between June 1 and the date of the census enumeration.

Let's imagine that I had an ancestor that I knew died in 1910 from his tombstone but it did not give the specific date. After looking at the 1910 census, I find my ancestor living in Mecklenburg County. The census page was dated May 12th. I might therefore begin to search for an obituary or death record between May 12th and December 31st of 1910 BUT I WOULD BE WRONG!!!

You see, my ancestor actually died on April 15th and was only recorded on May 12th as alive because census day was April 1st! If I started looking for death records after the recorded date, I would never have found anything. I needed to have started with the actual census day and worked from there toward December 31st. It is therefore imperative to understand that census day is far more important than census date.

As a point of reference, here are the census day dates for all of the major United States Federal Censuses taken between 1790 and 1930.

• 1790-1820 - First Monday in August
• 1830-1900 - June 1st
• 1910 - April 15th
• 1920 - January 1st
• 1930 - April 1st