Update – How to Find your Ancestors in the 1940 Federal Census

April 23, 2012 1 Comment

Right now finding your ancestors in the 1940 Federal Census records is a challenge because most are not indexed. Indexing allows you to search the records using the name of the person you want to find. As of April 23 Ancestry.com had only two states indexed – Nevada and Delaware. Myheritage.com has one state indexed – Rhode Island. All of the other states must be searched by using the enumeration district (ED) listed on the census records.

The ED number was assigned to a specific area by the census department and it changes from census year to census year. However, knowing where the person lived in 1940 will allow you to find their 1940 ED number.  I recommend using the website stevemorse.org to find the needed ED number. This website has a utility (1920-1930-1940 finder/converter) that will convert the 1930 ED to the 1940 ED. Another utility on this website (Unified 1940 Census ED Finder ) will allow you to type in the street where your ancestors lived and the allow you to add across street to find the ED number.

If your do not know the exact 1940 address for your ancestors, you will need to find various records with an address listed that were generated about one year before or after 1940. Then browse the census records for the ED that includes this address. This is a method is an educated guess at where they lived and you may find more than one address to use in your search.

Good luck in your search and you should be rewarded with many new interesting facts about your family once you find the 1940 Census records.

Filed under Genealogy Research

Revisit your Sources

April 10, 2012 Leave a comment

It is important to continue to revisit your sources – especially online databases.  As your research progresses you will find new facts to your ancestors that you can add to your search criteria. This should give you search results that did not show up in previous searches. Another reason to revisit sources is that websites are adding new records on a regular basis and the new records added may be for your ancestors or their siblings.

An example of this was when I found a 1935 biography of the brother of an ancestor. This had been added to an online family tree in the previous year. The biography included references to the name of the Catholic Church the family attended and when I called the church I found the marriage record for the ancestor. This record listed where the bride and groom were baptized in Poland and I was again able to extend the family back three more generations.

Also try using a different method when you revisit an old source. Sometimes, I use only the family surname when I return to search previous databases. One example of my success using this technique led to the names of brothers and sisters of one ancestor. I then researched the marriage records for these siblings and I was able to identify their birthplace in Poland. When I searched the Polish records, I was able to extend the family back three more generations.

 These are only a few examples where I was able to find information to breakdown some of my brickwalls.

Filed under Genealogy Research