1940 CENSUS DAY IS HERE

There is probably no need for this blog to announce that the 1940 Census was released early this morning as it has been an event anticipated for months and years. The free NARA images are available at http://1940census.archives.gov and since there is no index yet, they suggest entering the 1930 census enumeration district into their handy converter. For example, my hometown of New London, Huron County, Ohio was 39-17 in 1930 and becomes 39-19 in 1940. Images load slowly or not at all today because everyone is trying this out. To explore the 1940 census today, familysearch.org has Delaware loaded as a sample and I had no trouble viewing this. The image was clean. Some actual birthplaces in foreign countries were on the pages I viewed. It gives the residence of each person in 1935 also, a great way to trace migration patterns. Ancestry.com as of noon had loaded in American Samoa, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Guam, Indiana, Maine, Nevada, the Panama Canal Zone, Rhode Island, and the Virgin Islands. What fun for genealogists!