Last night I attended a meeting at our local genealogical society to learn more about the 1940 Federal Census that will be made available on April 2, 2012. I hadn't given this census much thought previously, but this will be the first time that I will get to see my Mother and Father in a census. It's so easy to search for family names in earlier censuses on tools like Ancestry.com that I assumed that finding our ancestors in the 1940 would be similarly easy. WRONG!
| The 1940 census population schedules will be available for research on April 2, 2012, at 9:00 AM EST. |
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| Fred Walton with sons Fred & Edgar around the time of the 1940 Census |
Every city, town, village or rural area was divided into a series of enumeration districts. This is the area an enumerator (i.e. the census taker) can collect information in, in the allotted time. It may be a couple of city blocks or it may be a whole rural county. The challenge is finding the address for your ancestor and then using that to identify the ED. The National Archives has placed copies of the enumeration district maps and descriptions in NARA's Online Public Access catalog (OPA- http://www.archives.gov/research/search/). The National Archives website (http://www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/) has lots of helpful information and tutorials to help you get prepared for searching the 1940 Census.
Who are you looking for in 1940?
Start by making a list of the Ancestors you want to find. For example, I want to find my grandfather, Fred Walton. My father, Fred, should be listed as a member of his household. It would be great if each cousin would locate their Walton grandfather or grandmother and we can share that information on this blog to document all of George and Wilhelmina Constance Walton's children. You will probably want to add your other grandparents and your spouses grandparents to your list.
Where did they live in 1940?
The next step is to locate their address in 1940. If it's possible, ask someone who lived there. I started by asking my father if he remembered his 1940 address. If there is no one to ask or they aren't sure, there are numerous other places to find this information. The first place to look is the 1930 census and hope they haven't moved. I may have copies of the 1930's censuses for George Walton's children. If you need a copy, just ask. If I don't have it, then we'll find it together and put it here so the other cousins can share the details.
The 1930 census for Fred Walton shows his address as Benedict Ave, Glennville, Greensburg Township, Westchester county, New York.
The enumeration district, in the upper right hand corner of the form, is 60-154 where 60 is the code for Westchester Country and 154 is the area for a specific enumerator to gather data. In this case the enumerator was Emma L. Brown.
How to identify the 1940 ED
The next step is to convert the 1930 ED to the 1940 equivalent. There is a online conversion tool at: http://stevemorse.org/census/. Entering the 1930 ED 60-154 converts to a 1940 ED of 60-78.
Next we go to the NARA's Online Public Access catalog (OPA- http://www.archives.gov/research/search/), so we can look this up on a map and verify the address. Enter 1940 Census maps + the county + the state: in my case I entered "1940 Census maps Westchester Greenburgh New York" resulting in the map:
This actually opens to 6 maps. With a little searching I was able to find Benedict Ave., but I really need a cross street to zero in on the house location. Even if I did find it, it wouldn't have helped me anyway! When I asked my father, he told me they lived at Longview Avenue in White Plains in 1940. He also remembered his uncle Charles Walton and cousins Molly, Charlie, Gene and Richard lived on East Post road in White Plains.
I used Google maps to find Longview Avenue to get an idea of what part of White plains this was in. It is a LOOOOONG avenue. I had to go back to Dad to get an intersection to help me narrow down my search. Once I had an intersection I was able to use the tool at http://stevemorse.org/census to answer a few questions (State, City, Street, Cross Street) and narrowed down the enumeration district to 60-365-367 or 383 or 386. When the Census is available, on April 2nd, this will be my starting place, but you still have to go through the records name by name. I wonder if he had any famous or interesting neighbors?
Another place to look for addresses is city directories. If you still live in the same area as your grandparents did you may find copies in your local library. The New York State Library in Albany also has a large collection of city directories (http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/genealogy/citydir.htm).You can try searching online, although I have spent time searching for Westchester and Tarrytown and have come up empty handed. If you find a good online source, please let me know and we can document it here.
Still another place to search are World War II Draft Records (contact the National Archives' Regional Location for the state in which your ancestor lived or check Ancestry.com or Fold3.com)
Next Steps
I have a few more names to look up on my mothers side as well as my wife, Ruthann's family. I hope you will look up your Walton Ancestors too! In the coming weeks I will place a table here with each of George's children's names, their 1930 address & ED if known, their 1940 address and ED if known and who will be conducting the search. Please let me know if you will be researching your line or would like to take one of the family lines that we haven't identified any cousins yet. This exercise may help us identify them.
If you have any questions after visiting the NARA site, please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to answer them.
If all this seems like a lot of work...it is! but won't it be fun to see those records "hot off the press". In the meantime, take a look at a 1940 census taker in action .
Good Luck Family Historians!
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