This is exactly what they do with the information, but why would you think that they care about the NAMES of people. They were looking for the demographics of each area, which is population, sex, race, marriage status and the like. Names mean nothing to them.
samclem, I’m not the only one who thought Ancestry would have the images. I knew an index was a long way off. Even Family Search says NARA released the digital images. I would never have thought each company would rescan the images.
Actually, I’m finding that census.gov has a much better search than Ancestry does at this time. I’ve got it narrowed down to a block now for my grandparents and am going through sheets now, which Ancestry wasn’t very much help for.
Seriously, why would the government do a name index? The Department of Commerce gives less than the ass of a rat where your grandmother was living in 1940. It serves them absolutely no purpose. They should do a huge expensive indexing project just to be nice?
The 1940 US Census Community Project is being headed up by several organizations/companies. Visit the 1940 US Census Community Project if you wish to read more about it and/or help us “index” (create the name index). (Anyone can volunteer).
Aceplace57, to answer your first question they are hoping to have it all indexed by October. Yes 132 million names is a lot and every record is indexed twice for accuracy. In the past eight days more than 17.7 million records were indexed and arbitrated! At this pace we will be done much, much sooner.
An email FamilySearch sent out today said:
“Delaware is complete and will be published within days for all to enjoy. Other states will be completed and published soon. Congratulations! You can watch the progress at http://www.familysearch.org/1940census.”
To answer your second question no not all of the sites will require a paid membership. FamilySearch.org is the largest free collection of genealogical records and they will publish it free of charge. They are part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As you read above, Delaware records will be ready in a few days!
Thanks for the link - did over 400 records last night. Whee! Who needs sleep with all the Oles and Lenas in Minnesota to be indexed.
Man this is slow. I’ve done thousands of records myself over the past month (Alabama, Oklahoma, Nebraska, even a few from Puerto Rico [the pages from P.R. that I did were in English {mostly, not all, Spanish names of course, but the form was English}- does anybody know if that was the norm?) and there are thousands of volunteers including some who don’t work and do this constantly; you’d think there would be more states completed than just Delaware, Nevada, and D.C. (which were indexed almost immediately after the release). At least a few of the smaller (by population) states must be ready.
Anybody heard anything about what the hold up is?
Random observations unrelated to indexing:
It’s amazing how many people had incomes higher than their home’s value. I found my grandfather’s records and he had an income of ~$2200 (I don’t remember the exact figure but it was in the low 2k) and his house, which still stands, was then and is now a smallish bungalow but very well built and not a slum by any stretch, was appraised at $800; even today in teeny-tiny-town Alabama it sold for in the $50,000 range when it was on the market a few years ago. I thought initially it was just the fact that this was in a backwoods Alabama town, but then I saw houses in Oklahoma City and Lincoln NE and other cities that belonged to professors and other middle class people and were appraised for $2,000 or $3,500 while the families living in them made more than that in a year. Does anybody know if real estate just hadn’t boomed at all yet, or had it just flatlined that much in the Depression?
Also, I haven’t seen anybody with an income higher than the figure $5,000+. Apparently that was where exact figures were no longer required. I looked at the (indexed) D.C. and noticed that even people like J. Edgar Hoover and Nicholas Longworth were listed (usually along with everybody else on their page) at $5,000+.
I’ve done mostly Minnesota records, with a few records from England and some from the 1890 Census of Civil War Vets. I think I’m a little over 8k entered.
I am finding that many people had lodgers, which I think is interesting. I’m cranky with the arbitrations - if I am unsure about a name, I will look it up on ancestry or at family search. I’ve brought more than a few back to the table.
There have been a few high income people I’ve indexed, usually in the insurance business or some management position. The wealthiest guy was a furrier.
And I agree - it’s interesting seeing a person earn $3k/year, residing in a $2k house. In 1959, my parents bought a newly built house in Minneapolis for $3k. It was previously farm land. The original farm house was across the alley. In 1940 the original house (built around 1910) was valued at $1.5k.
I’m primarily interested in Arkansas (my moms family) and Louisiana (dads family). Our entire families were clustered there in 1940.
This census has me the most excited because I actually know these people. Mom was 8 and Dad was 13 in 1940. My Dad’s oldest brother died in a railroad accident in 1943. Crushed between two cars. So, he’d be on the 1940 census with his young bride.
The announcements and messages show up when you log into the indexing. The messages I have been getting are about the need for more arbitrators as the work is bottlenecked.
You’d think they’d find some way to go ahead and mount what’s been entered as a Beta version. They can arbitrate for the next five years and update accordingly, but even if half the names were entered incorrecly that means that the other half would be searchable (and I’m guessing that most would be close enough to be searchable).
That’s what you get when you opt for smaller government. Suddenly you find that they can’t do everything you want without funding.
Maine is available now on Ancestry.com. Not thrilling news if you didn’t have family in Maine in 1940, obviously, but it’s the first state/region to be indexed since D.C. in late April.
Because, if you’re not going to index by it, then there’s no reason to even require names at all. Names exist to allow you to identify a specific person.
Lots of states just came available, bringing the list to:
Alabama
Arizona
California
Colorado, D.C…
Delaware
Georgia
Hawaii
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucy
Maine
Michigan
Minnesota
Nebraska
New Hampshire
Nevada
New York,
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Virginia
Vermont
Washington
Wisconsin
You’re getting closer. 
Tenn is good news. Hopefully Arkansas and Louisiana aren’t too far away from completion.
The indexes are getting finished much quicker than I anticipated. Great news.
Also Montana, I believe. I’m still working on the volunteer indexing, concentrating on the ones they feel are most pressing. Also on the Colorado WWI draft registrations.
And still no Illinois! Are they being punished?
A weird thing: one of the first searches I did was for one of my great-grandmothers, Florence, and she popped right up. I looked at her record, 100% sure it was her, but didn’t save it just yet. When I went back to save it, her record doesn’t come up! No idea what gives.
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On another topic:
For anybody who’s a member of SAM’S CLUB: I was there yesterday and they have whatever the current version of Family Tree Maker for about $46, which includes a 6 month membership to Ancestry. That’s much less than half price for the Ancestry subscription alone.
That’s one of the high priority states, along with Texas. I’m working as fast as I can! The basic version of FTM is $32 on their website. The six months is nice, but be aware they will automatically renew you unless you immediately cancel your membership (there is no “no auto-renewal” option anywhere on the site). I bought the international, then had to call them about it. They basically just cancel your membership, but you still have access for the period you’ve paid for. Dumb, I know.
Thank you!
I have already found my father because Glenview wasn’t that big. I found my husband on the south side of Chicago because he knew the address, but it’s my mother I can’t find because her family moved around the north side and I don’t really want to go page by page. It would be nice to find all the shirttail relatives, too. I will try to be more patient.