1940 US Census is completely searchable

Indexing of all US states on the 1940 census has been completed at Ancestry.com. Now we can search by name, even in Texas!

All that is required in order to view and download 1940 census images is a free Ancestry.com account, so no need to utilize that 14-day free trial just yet (if you haven't already).

Most states in the 1940 US Federal Census are also searchable and available for download free at FamilySearch. All of the names have been indexed, but a handful of states, including Texas (where all of my relatives were), won't be searchable for a few more weeks.

I managed to find about half of my 1940 ancestors by browsing the enumeration districts where I thought they would be living, but many were hard to track down. I now have a complete collection of all of my husband's and my own direct lines from the 1940 census schedule. Yay!

Tips

Like with previous indexed census images, the 1940 index does have errors due to illegible handwriting, fallible informants, and surely a few typos here and there. Also, spelling variations in first and last names may be an issue, though Ancestry.com does try to account for this situation.

If you are having no luck finding a particular ancestor, be sure to try searching instead for another relative who would have been living in the household. You can also just search for the surname within a specific area in order to uncover other relatives in the same area with a single search.

Also be sure to browse up and down census pages for relatives living nearby. I wasn't looking for my great-great grandmother yet, but stumbled across her living a few doors down from my great-grandmother's family.

Happy hunting!

13 Colonies: Ancestry.com Free Access July 3 - July 8, 2012

In celebration of the 4th of July holiday, Ancestry.com is providing free access to their 13 Colonies Collection through July 8th.

The 13 Colonies Collection includes over 65 million records, predominately from the states along the east coast. The records are not limited to the colonial days, simply focused primarily on the areas relating to the 13 colonies.

A free member account is required to view any of the documents offered during the Independence Day promotion at Ancestry.com. This will allow you to also save document images to your computer.

What have I found so far? Just what my husband's ancestor, Jason R. Parker (abt. 1821 - 19 Jan 1890) was up to on 18 July 1867 in Towns County, Georgia.

Feel free to share any awesome finds in the comments below! I will, too.

Free Genealogy and Family History Forms at Genedocs

If you are looking for ready-made forms or templates to help organize or enrich your family history research, check out Genedocs Innovative Forms Library for a massive collection of free forms to accommodate just about every need.

The 30 available forms at Genedocs cover a variety of genealogical subjects, including an ancestor outline list, research logs, military service summary, biography templates, timelines, and comparison tools for tracking family traits and naming patterns. You will also find planning forms to help prepare for inevitable life changing events.

Note: If you don't have Microsoft Office, I've had no trouble importing the forms I've downloaded so far into OpenOffice.

Also be sure to check out the Genedocs Blog.

I, for one, will be spending this weekend transcribing census data into Census Summary Sheets.

1940 Census - 30 States Indexed and Searchable at FamilySearch

The volunteers at FamilySearch.org, who have been avidly indexing the 1940 Us Census images since it was released to the public in April of this year, now have 30 States available to search by name. That's more than half of the States, and roughly 75% of the entire 1940 Census.

The new US States added June 28 to FamilySearch's 1940 searchable records are California, Washington, Iowa, New Mexico, Nebraska and Missouri. The remaining states can still be browsed by enumeration district, but chances are, it won't be much longer before the indexing of the 1940 Census is complete. FamilySearch is hoping to complete indexing of the remaining census schedules by the end of July.

This event marks an impressive milestone for one of the largest free-to-use genealogical data repositories available online. To check out updated progress of the 1940 Census indexing project, visit familysearch.org/1940census/.

Here's a list of 1940 US Census States searchable at FamilySearch.org as of this posting:

• Alabama


• Alaska


• Arizona


• California


• Colorado


• Delaware


• Florida


• Hawaii


• Idaho


• Indiana


• Iowa


• Kansas


• Louisiana


• Maine


• Minnesota (pending)


• Mississippi


• Missouri


• Montana


• Nebraska


• New Hampshire


• New Mexico


• Nevada


• North Dakota


• Oklahoma


• Oregon


• Rhode Island


• South Dakota


• Utah


• Vermont


• Virginia


• Washington


• Wyoming

Preserve The Pensions Fund Gets Generous Donation

The Preserve the Pensions - War of 1812 Pension Digitization Fund has received a $135,000 gift in memory of Ardath Stedman, the mother of the late Jon Stedman, from who’s estate the donation originates. The generous donation will help in the Federation of Genealogical Societies' (FGS) endeavor to digitize the War of 1812 Pension records for preservation and access.

This year marks the bicentennial of the war America declared on the British in 1812. The military conflict began on 18 Jun 1812, and lasted almost three years, finally coming to an end on 18 Feb 1815. The Preserve the Pensions project hopes to complete digitization of the pension records by the bicentennial of the war's end.

The efforts of the FGS will result in free access to digital images of 180,000 pension applications from the War of 1812 for genealogy researchers. The records that have already been digitized and indexed can be found at Fold3, free of charge.

More information about the Preserve the Pensions project is available at www.fgs.org/1812.

Webinars Available Online at FamilySearch.org

Robert Kehrer presented the first in a series of FamilySearch webinars on June 19, 2012 intended to aid FamilySearch.org visitors about using making the most of FamilySearch's extensive collection of free genealogical materials. The second webinar in the series was recorded June 26, and will soon be amade available online to those who missed it.

The FamilySearch Webinars have come in response to an influx of user questions about many of the online genealogy site's existing and newly added features. The webinars will focus on specific elements of the FamilySearch.org website, and instruct viewers on how to access and utilize the immense collection of free family history data.

Part 1 of the FamilySearch Webinar is primarily geared toward familiarizing visitors with FamilySearch's International Genealogical Collection (commonly referred to as the IGI), but also covers the Library Catalog and Historical Records Collection. The version of the webinar that has been posted for the public is a re-recording of the original webinar, thus it does not contain the question and answer session that followed the original broadcast.

The second part of the informative webinar series is a rebroadcast of the original, complete with the questions and responses that followed the presentation. FamilySearch Webinar Part 2 focuses on searching and browsing the constantly growing collections of records available at FamilySearch. Topics include search strategies, result filtering, how to broaden search results, use of wild cards, additional information about the IGI, using the My Source Box, and features of the FamilyTree.

FamilySearch Webinar Part 1 can be viewed here.

FamilySearch Webinar Part 2 can be viewed here.

FamilySearch.org is a non-profit genealogy service provided by The Church of Latter-day Saints. The website contains a plethora of free family history records. Some of the document images that have been scanned into the genealogy data base require a member account to view, but membership and access to all of FamilySearch's resources is completely free.

Also known through history as the Genealogical Society of Utah, which was founded in 1894, the organization has been dedicated to the preservation and free sharing of family history and genealogical data in the form of microfiche, microfilm, and digital records for over a century. The vast collections at FamilySearch.org contain 2.5 billion names (and growing) from countries all over the world.

Robert Kehrer, presenter of the FamilySearch Webinars, is the Senior Manager of Search Technologies at FamilySearch.org.

Source: https://familysearch.org/blog/

1940 New York Census Indexed by Name

Earlier this month, Ancestry.com added New York to the short list of US States that can now be searched by name in the 1940 Census. Completion of the indexing of roughly 13.5 million residents of New York appearing on the 1940 US Census marks the fifth completed State (including Washington DC) Ancestry.com can now provide name-based search results for.

Boasting an impressive 10 percent of the population in 1940, New York had the largest population of any State in the US. It is no wonder that the team avidly indexing the New York enumeration districts of the 1940 Census at Ancestry.com has spent just over 2 months working on the project.

To search names in the 1940 US Census of New York, go to the 1940 Census at Ancestry.com to search the indexed states, or browse by enumeration district. The 1940 Census images at Ancestry are currently viewable without a paid subscription, but a free membership is required.

States that are currently searchable by name in the 1940 U.S. Census at Ancestry.com are Delaware, Nevada, Washington D.C., Maine and New York. The remaining 1940 US Census States are actively being indexed by Ancestry.com staff, and will become available as each State is completed.

The 1940 United States Federal Census was the 16th census taken by the United States. It was released to the public on April 2, 2012, by the National Archives and Records Administration. In an unprecedented internet event, the images were made public in digital format by the NARA on 1940census.archives.gov.