1940 Census

When the 1940 Census was released on April 2, 2012 I spent quite a few hours that evening searching for familiar names. I had prepared myself by creating a list of every person on my tree who may have been alive in 1940. I got the inspiration and instructions on how to do so from the ftmuser blog. I also made note of where a few particular relatives had been living in 1930 to use as a starting point (I chuckle each time I see that rent in one part of NYC was $25/month in 1930).

Then I was overwhelmed.

I'll admit I chose a challenging group to start with. Between 1930 and 1940 my grandfather's father had died and my grandfather had married my grandmother. I had also determined through photos and letters I found in the attic that my grandfather's mother (now a widow) had moved in with my (fairly) newlywed grandparents.

Determined to find some eagerly anticipated information, I located the appropriate enumeration district that this family lived in in 1930 hoping to find them still nearby. I stopped searching after about 25 pages of images.

Maybe I'll give it another try...

I also thought it was interesting that you can purchase the census! Prices for the various states range from $125 to $9,000 depending on the format (digitized or microfilm) and the size of the record. For $200,000 to $580,750 you can own the census for the entire nation. In case that doesn't appeal to you you can also access the records for free.


---
Today my tree contains 1338 people and 2049 records.