Finding Your Family in the 1940 U.S. Federal Census

In order to find your family in the 1940 U.S. Federal Census when it is first released to the public on April 2, 2012, you will need to know where your ancestors lived at that time, as the census will not be indexed immediately. A team of volunteers is amassed, ready to start indexing, but it still will take some time! If you would like to help, please sign up here. City, county, rural and other directories will be helpful in figuring out where your ancestors lived in 1940, especially if you believe they moved after the 1930 census was taken. Using my site can assist you in this process; however, please remember that I do NOT have links to all the 1939 - 1941 city directories available online on my site YET. The rate at which directories are scanned and uploaded to the Internet is much greater than one person like myself can keep up with; even if I had a team, it would be impossible to stay ahead of the game! Here are some tips to help you find those directories and thus find your people on the 1940 U.S. Federal Census.

1. First, see if there are links to directories listed for the place in which your people lived and the time period of the late 1930s to the early 1940s on my site.

2. If you can't find links on my site for those directories, don't despair! Please read the list of online resources available. Chances are the directories are online somewhere and I just haven't been able to list the links on this site yet.

3. Check out Frequently Asked Questions number 4 and 5 on my FAQs page for help with offline directories and access to subscription sites that you may not have subscriptions to at the moment.

4. Don't forget to check out Steve Morse's Tutorial to help you find those Enumeration District numbers. Tip: Don't use the Back button on your browser, or you'll end up on his Home page. Use the Go Back to the Previous Page button that is at the BOTTOM of each step of the tutorial.

Best of luck in finding your ancestors and family member in the 1940 U.S. Federal Census!

CA, CO, DC, KS, MN, NJ, NY, WA New Pages and Updates

New Pages

Mesa County, Colorado - with seven links from Ancestry

Jefferson County, Kansas - with four links from the Kansas History and Heritage Project

Ford County, Kansas - with three links from the Kansas History and Heritage Project

Ferry County, Washington - with one link from Crossroad Archives

Pend Oreille County, Washington - with one link from Crossroad Archives


Updates

Los Angeles County, California - 34 new links from Long Beach Public Library

Sacramento County, California - one new link from Golden Nugget Library

Colorado - now with 14 out of 64 counties linked

Denver County, Colorado - 17 new links from Ancestry

District of Columbia - corrected 1874 Georgetown Directory with new link to Genealogy Trails; added one new link from Genealogy Trails

Kansas - now with 10 out of 105 counties linked

Hennepin County, Minnesota - 22 new links from Hennepin County Library

Camden County, New Jersey - one new link from the Delaware Valley Rhythm & Blues Society

Essex County, New Jersey - one new link from Millburn Free Public Library

Union County, New Jersey - one new link from Millburn Free Public Library

Erie County, New York - four new links, one each from Distant Cousin, Don's List, Google Books, and the Internet Archive

Washington - now with 24 out of 39 counties linked

Stevens County, Washington - one new link from Crossroad Archives

CA, CO, IL, MI, NE, NY, TX, and WA New Pages and Updates

New Pages:

Franklin County, Illinois - with one link from Franklin County GenWeb

Winnebago County, Illinois - with one link from Cherry Valley Public Library District

Platte County, Nebraska - with three links from Platte County GenWeb


Updates:

California - added California Voter Registers, 1866-1898 from Ancestry to all California pages and updated California Voter Registrations, 1900-1968, also from Ancestry, from 1908-1968 to 1900-1968.

Sacramento County, California - one new link from the Golden Nugget Library

Boulder County, Colorado - four new links from Ancestry

Denver County, Colorado - nine new links from Ancestry

Illinois - now with 28 out of 102 counties linked

Bay County, Michigan - 27 new links from Ancestry and one from Google Books

Nebraska - now with 5 out of 93 counties linked

Lancaster County, Nebraska - fixed broken link, updated name of publisher, and added index to 1925 Rural Directory

Erie County, New York - one new link from Erie County GenWeb

McClennan County, Texas - three new links from Baylor University Library

King County, Washington - five new links from Seattle Public Library

CA, IRE, NC, NY, and VA New Pages and Updates

Here are some of the latest new pages and updates. In all the busy-ness of the site maintenance over the past four months, it's possible that I didn't make note of other new pages I created or updates I made. Since I made changes on every single page (over 700!) as part of the maintenance, it would be a time-consuming task to go through my site management pages to double check!

I encourage you to see if there is new information on a page you're familiar with, or a new page for one of your ancestral or research locations. Happy Hunting!


New Pages

County Cavan, Ireland - with one link from Library Ireland

County Donegal, Ireland - with two links from Library Ireland

County Dublin, Ireland - with two links from Library Ireland

County Kerry, Ireland - with one link from Library Ireland

Madison County, New York - with one link from the Internet Archive

Craven County, North Carolina - with one link from the Internet Archive

Cumberland County, North Carolina - with one link from the Internet Archive

Guilford County, North Carolina - with one link from the Internet Archive

City of Virginia Beach, Virginia - with one link from the Internet Archive


Updates

Los Angeles County, California - 22 new links from the Torrance Public Library,  five from the Los Angeles Public Library, and six from the Internet Archive


Ireland - now with five out of 26 historic counties linked

New York - now with 41 out of 62 counties and New York City linked

Durham County, North Carolina - three new links from the DigitalNC Library/Durham County Library and 14 from the Internet Archive

North Carolina - now with 10 out of 100 counties linked

Mecklenburg, North Carolina - one new link from the Internet Archive

New Hanover, North Carolina - one new link from the Internet Archive 

Wake County, North Carolina - one new link from the Internet Archive

Virginia - now with five out of 134 counties and independent cities linked

What in the World is Happening with the Online Historical Directories Website?

I'm sure some of you have been wondering if the Online Historical Directories Website is still being updated. The answer is "YES!" In fact, I've had to do some major site maintenance, which is why it's been taking me so long to get back to adding new links to directories. Here are some things that I've been updating and changing as part of that maintenance:

• Changing my name on every page to "Miriam J. Robbins" after my recent divorce and subsequent return to my maiden name (over 700 pages!).
• Updating the copyright date on every page to reflect the 2011 year (and it won't be long before I'll be changing it again to 2012!).
• Updating a few rogue pages' names from "Online City, County, and Rural Directories" to "Online Historical Directories". This was a decision I made back in October 2009, and there were still pages I had not updated after nearly two years!
• Adding links on every page to the relevant corresponding page at the Online Historical Newspapers Website.
• EveNDon has been a wonderful resource of free online directories, created by Eve and Don Kreiger of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Tragically, Eve passed away recently and Don has changed the name of the website to Don's List. Old links still work, but I wanted to make sure the site name was changed.
• I changed all references of Family Tree Connections to reflect its parent company, GenealogyToday.
• And just when I thought I was finished, Footnote changed its name to Fold3! Old links still work, but I did change the name on my site. I'll change links later.

Whew! And believe it or not, I have been adding links to directories. I'll post those updates later.

Thank you again for your patience, and as always, I'm grateful for new links and corrections sent my way (email me here).

I'm a Guest on GeneaBloggers Talk Radio!

I'm honored to be one of two guests being interviewed on Thomas MacEntee's GeneaBloggers Talk Radio tonight, Friday the 12th, from 7:00 to 8:00 PM, PDT. The topic will be "Read All About It! Newspapers as Genealogy Resources." The other guest will be Thomas J. Kemp, of GenealogyBank and ObitsArchive. I'll be highlighting my Online Historical Newspapers website. You can listen online, call in (number is listed in the link below), and/or chat with other listeners on the site. If you can't make it, you can come back and listen later. The link to the show is here. Come join us!

NE Updates

Updates

Nebraska - now with four out of 93 counties linked

Lancaster County, Nebraska - with one link from the Denton Community Historical Society

Madison County, Nebraska - with three links from the Madison County Genealogical Society

York County, Nebraska - with three links from the York County Historical Association