Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Ancestry.com and the 1940 U.S. Census

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While I was away (they plan this, I think!) this morning, Ancestry.com announced that 1940 U.S. CENSUS TO BE FREE ON ANCESTRY.COM.

In the fine print:

*  It will be available starting in mid-April 2012 in the United States. 

*  Free to access the index and images through the end of calendar year 2013.

*  There are 3.8 million images with 130 million records in the 1940 census.  (I'm assuming 130 names with entries in 45 columns).

See NARA is Looking for a Host and Search Engine for the 1940 U.S. Census and 1940 U.S. Census RFI Q&A for background information on the National Archives effort to image and index the 1940 United States census records.

Some questions:

*  Has Ancestry.com won the contract to freely host the census page images and index the census? 

*  If they haven't, then who has?  Or will? 

*  I thought the NARA requirement was to host the images and provide the index free of charge.  I don't recall any cutoff date.

*  I thought the NARA requirement was to have the index completed by 2 April 2011 when the 1940 census is supposed to be available.

*  If an organization other than Ancestry.com does win the NARA contract, how will Ancestry.com index and link to images the census starting by mid-April?

*  How long will it take Ancestry.com (and perhaps other providers) to complete the indexing and linking of the 1940 census?  Will it be completed by the end of 2013?

*  Will the indexes on Ancestry.com, and any other providers, be as detailed as the 1930 census is on Ancestry.com?  There are 45 fields on the form.

*  The press release notes that "...will be made free to search, browse, and explore in the United States..."  Does that mean that it won't be free outside of the United States?

Just wondering!  It's an interesting time to be a genealogy blogger, eh?

1 comment:

Peter said...

@Geneabloggers have confirmed the census will not be available outside the US. Subscriptions for people from outside will rarely be an option so bad luck? And how about US genealogists living abroad?

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