Saturday, April 2, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - the 1940 US Census

Hey, genea-buffs (notice I didn't say "buff genealogists," or "genies-in-the-buff"), it's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun!!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  Know that the 1940 United States Census will be released for public viewing on the National Archives website on Monday, 2 April 2012 (366 days from today!).  My understanding is that, when it is first released, that there will be no indexes available - we will have to search them the "old way" - with known addresses, finding enumeration districts from maps and websites, and then go page-by-page to find our folks.  Eventually, there will be indexes available, but we don't know how long after the release that will be.

2)  Which of your ancestral family members will be in the 1940 census?  Consider not just your ancestors, but also their siblings. 

3)  Where did your ancestral family members live in 1940 on Census Day?  Have you found all of the addresses in city directories or telephone books?  Please list the ones you know the addresses of, and the ones you need to find addresses for.

4)  Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, a comment to this blog post, or on a Facebook note or comment.

Note:  This idea came to me on Friday night while participating in the Geneabloggers Radio chat - we had a discussion of the 1940 census release.

Here's mine:

*  My great-grandparents Henry Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer were residing in San Diego at 2115 30th Street.
*  My grandparents Lyle L. and Emily (Auble) Carringer, and their daughter, Betty, were residing at 2130 Fern Street in San Diego.  I'm curious to see who the neighbors were!

*  My grandparents, Frederick W. and Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver were residing in Leominster, Massachusetts, but I'm unsure of the address.  It may have been on West Street.
*  My father was in Leominster, Massachusetts, or environs, perhaps residing with his sister's family, Bowers and Ruth (Seaver) Fischer, who resided in either Leominster or Sterling.
*  I don't know where my Seaver aunt, Marion (Seaver) Braithwaite and her family were residing - perhaps Ashburnham, Massachusetts.
*  I don't know where my Seaver aunt, Evelyn (Seaver) Wood and her family were residing, and can't even guess.
*  I don't know where my uncle Edward Seaver was residing, perhaps in Leominster with his parents or perhaps he had his own home somewhere else.  He was married in the summer of 1940.
*  I don't know where my Seaver aunt, Geraldine Seaver was residing in Massachusetts.  She was probably teaching, perhaps in Northampton.

All of my Seaver aunts and uncles are deceased, but I'll bet that some of my first cousins recall where they lived in 1940!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I wrote about this earlier today: A Year From Now I Hope To Find

kinfolknews said...

Here's mine: Kinfolk News - SNGF: 1940 Census

Greta Koehl said...

Mine is at http://gretabog.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-and-who-i-hope-to-find-on-1940.html.

Mel said...

Better late than never...my SNGF entry:
http://www.researchjournal.yourislandroutes.com/2011/04/the-1940-census/