Tuesday, March 13, 2012

What Columns of the 1940 U.S. Census Will be Indexed?

I was wondering which columns of the 1940 United States Census would be indexed.

I recently heard that Ancestry.com would be indexing every column (I think I heard Kendall Jefferson say this in his Keynote talk at the Escondido Family History Fair on 3 March, but I didn't write it down at the time).

What about the FamilySearch Indexing project to index the 1940 U.S. Census?  As part of my FamilySearch Indexing task to prepare for the 1940 Census, I indexed the sample batch page available on the FamilySearch Indexing site.  Here is what the screen for this sample batch looks like:


While indexing this batch, I wrote down the column numbers headings that will be indexed:

Line Number

3.  Household Number
7.  Surname
7.  Given Name(s)
7.  Titles or Terms (like Rev., Jr. Sr., V, etc.)
8.  Relation
9.  Sex
10.  Race or Color
11.  Age
12.  Marital Status
15.  Place of birth
17.  Residence in 1935 - City/Town
18.  Residence in 1935 - County
19.  Residence in 1935 - State/Foreign Country

That's it - 14 columns to input.  Out of 34.  The FamilySearch Indexing effort will not include the following:

1.  Street name
2.  House number
4.  Home owned or rented
5.  Value of home, if owned, or monthly rental, if rented
6.  Does this household live on a farm?
13.  Attended school or college any time since March 1, 1940.
14.  Highest grade of school completed?
16.  Citizenship of the foreign born
20.  Residence in 1935 - On a Farm?
21.  Was this person at Work for pay or profit in private or non-emergency Govt. work during week of March 24-30?
22.  If not, was he at work on, or assigned to, public Emergency Work (WPA, NYA, CCC, etc.) during week of March 24-30?
23.  Was this person Seeking Work.
24.  If not seeking work, did he have a Job, business, etc.?
25.  Indicate whether engaged in home housework (H) or school (S), unable to work (U), or other (Ot).
26.  Number of hours worked during week of March 24-30, 1940
27.  Duration of unemployment up to March 30, 1940-in weeks.
28.  Occupation - Trade, profession, or particular kind of work
29.  Industry or business
30.  Class of worker
31.  Number of weeks worked in 1939 (Equivalent full-time weeks)
32.  Amount of money wages or salary received (including commissions)
33.  Did this person receive income of $50 or more from sources other than money wages or salary?
34.  Number of Farm Schedule

Frankly, I understand why those columns will not be indexed by FamilySearch Indexing.  There is little to be gained by indexing these other columns in terms of searching the census.  The important columns for searching - name, sex, race, age, place of birth - are included.

The column that I wish they had indexed is the occupation.  The other columns, including the two sampling rows on each page, will provide extensive information about the person and family lifestyle, and is the major reason why the census schedule should be accessed and transcribed or abstracted by researchers.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/03/what-columns-of-1940-us-census-will-be.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

No comments: