1940 Census to be Released April 2nd, 2012

Important collection of family history streams onto websites.

The 1940 census will be released online on April 2, 2012! Beginning tomorrow, you will be able to access the digitized census records at http://1940census.archives.gov.. The digital images will be accessible free of charge at NARA facilities nationwide through our public access computers as well as on personal computers via the internet.

The 1940 census was taken on April 1, 1940. The official census population count was 132,164,569 for the United States proper but does not include the populations of the territories of the US. The census called for the street, avenue, road, and house number; the number of dwelling house and family in order of visitation; whether the home was owned or rented; the value of home, if owned, or monthly rental, if rented; whether the family lived on a farm; the name of each person whose usual place of residence on April 1, 1940 was with this family; the relationship of this person to the head of the family; each person’s sex; color or race; age at last birthday; marital condition; whether he or she attended school or college any time since March 1, 1940; highest grade of school completed; his or her place of birth; citizenship of the foreign-born; place of residence on April 1, 1935; his or her trade, profession, or particular kind of work done, and the industry of business with which he or she was involved, and his or her class of worker and number of weeks worked in 1939; wages or salary received in 1939 and whether or not $50 or more was earned from non-wage or non-salary sources; It also includes, if applicable, the number of the corresponding farm schedule.

Supplementary questions on sheet included name of the individual; place of birth of both parents; native language; if the person is a veteran or the wife, widow or minor child of a veteran; if a minor child, if their veteran father is dead; war or military service of veteran; if the person has a social security number; if old-age insurance or railroad retirement deductions were taken from their wages or salary in 1939 and if so, were they made from all, half or more, or less than half the wages or salary; his or her usual trade, profession, or particular kind of work done, and the usual industry of business with which he or she was involved, and his or her usual class of worker; for all women, whether they have been married more than once, age at first marriage and number of live births she has had.

Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, also announced that both the images and indexes to the 1940 U.S. Federal Census will be made free to search, browse, and explore in the United States when this important collection commences streaming onto the website in mid-April 2012. Ancestry is committing to make the 1940 Census free from release through to the end of 2013, and by doing so hopes to help more people get started exploring their family history.

“The release of the 1940 U.S. Census will be an exciting event for any American interested in learning more about their family history,” said Ancestry.com CEO Tim Sullivan. “By making this hugely important collection free to the public for an extended period, we hope to inspire a whole new generation of Americans to start researching their family history.”

When complete, more than 3.8 million original document images containing 130 million plus records will be available to search by more than 45 fields. It will be Ancestry.com’s most comprehensively indexed set of historical records to date. As this census will be the most recent to be made publicly available, it represents the best chance for those new to family history to make that all-important first discovery.

For additional information on the 1940 census, see the 1940 Census Records website at http://www.archives.gov/research/census/1940.