Issue 25.12
The 1940 U.S. Census Community Project which includes FamilySearch, findmypast.com, the National Archives, ProQuest and Archives.com, announced earlier this month that it has reached and surpassed the halfway mark toward completion. This means they have already indexed over half of the 1940 U.S. Census in two months. Thanks to the efforts of more than 125,000 volunteers, more than 75 million names from the 1940 U.S. census have been indexed with several state records already available to the public on all project partner websites. The national service project, the first and largest of its kind, aims to establish a comprehensive searchable database and make the 1940 U.S. census records available for free.
Following just two months of volunteer indexing, records for the following 18 states became searchable: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming. There are probably more available by now.
“We believe that all people deserve free access to the 1940 U.S. census records so they can learn more about their family history, ancestors and the past. With the help of the Community Project partners, and especially volunteer indexers across the nation, we’re halfway to our goal,” said Megan Smolenyak, spokesperson for the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project. “We didn’t expect to make this much progress only two months after the 1940 census records were released, so we’re excited and thankful to all of the enthusiastic volunteers.”
Since April 2, Community Project volunteers have indexed more than 75 million records and this number continues to grow quickly as more than 7,000 volunteers sign up each week. The timely progression of making the census records freely searchable online is a direct result of the growing numbers of volunteers. Those interested in lending a hand can learn more and sign up to be an official 1940 U.S. census volunteer indexer at the website (the1940census.com). The project will release free searchable records for individual states as they are completed.
The index will allow the public to easily search every person found in the census and view digital images of the original census pages. The collection will be available online for free to the general public at 1940 census.archives.gov, Archives.com, FamilySearch.org, FindMyPast.com, and ProQuest.com through public libraries.
For more information, contact Shanna Jones (435)628-4900 or shannasjones@msn.com.