After a 72 year embargo, the NARA has released the digital images of the 1940 United States Federal Census. Even better, you can now search these records for free on sites like FamilySearch.org.
The previous Census included things like people’s names, ages, education, and place of birth, but in the 1940 Census other questions were added – such as where the person lived 5 yeas before, and whether they had been married before or not. The 1940 Census gave us a much more realistic look at the American population, habits and lifestyle.
Tens of millions of Americans who were included in the 1940 Census are still living today – including my Granny, her sister Aunt Dot, my grandfather’s sister Aunt Boots, and my late grandmothers sisters Aunt Rene and Aunt Billie. It also showed me some of my family members who had passed before I was born, like Mama Sid – my late grandmothers mother - who I only ever heard stories about.
So far sites like FamilySearch.org have indexed 51% of the country’s records, with more being added daily. Lucky for me, Alabama and Mississippi – where all of my family is from – is already 100% indexed, so it was easy to find my own family tree.
I enjoyed perusing the records – which appear as scanned copies of the original hand written records from 1940. I love how the handwriting looks almost identical to my late grandfathers penmanship. Silly that seeing that made me tear up, missing the notes he used to write me as a child.
You can check out the 1940 Census and maybe even find your family by checking out www.The1940Census.com.
