Update To 1940 U.S. Census

Ancestry updated their 1940 U.S. Federal Census database this week. With what, I don't know. They occasionally update census records but don't detail what's new. However I will still enjoy running my family's names through to see new additions--if any. Send me your relatives' names/locations too and I'll share their census pages (privately). 

AMONG THE QUESTIONS ASKED OF EACH HOUSEHOLD:

          Name of each person whose usual place of residence on April 1, 1940 would be in this household
          Their Relation to Head of House
          Color or race
          Age at last birthday and birth place
          Citizenship
          Residence location on April 1, 1935--five years earlier
          Marital Status
          Occupation
          Highest Grade Completed in H.S. or college
          House Number
          Weeks Worked in 1939
          Resident on farm in 1935?
         Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented  (yes, people replied to this nosiness) 
         Income From Other Sources?
         Respondent
         Income and Hours Worked The Week Prior to Census


As always, when looking at census records, I can't help but wonder how honest or forthcoming people were when giving answers to census enumerators. Were they told their info would remain private? Did cautious people not report their full income or value of property? Mistakes are frequently found, and you can't be certain if those were the answers given or if the error occurred later when records were transcribed.  For example, divorced people frequently identified their marital status as "widowed" rather than divorced.  

A random sample of about five percent of the population was also asked:

Birthplace of parents

Native language

Veteran status (including widow or minor child of a vet)

Social Security details

Marriage info for women (married more than once, age at first marriage, number of children)



ANCESTRY also reports: 

     Interesting Facts

     The top five foreign countries listed as a birthplace were Italy, Germany, Russia, Poland, and England.

     New York was the most commonly listed birth state.

     The average household size enumerated in the 1940 census was 3.7 people.

     Two women tied for the oldest person in the census: both Mary Dilworth of Oxford, Mississippi, and Cándido Vega Y Torres of Guayama, Puerto Rico, listed their ages as 119.

     Mary and John were the most common given names appearing in the 1940 census.

     The top five surnames in the 1940 census were Smith, Johnson, Brown, Williams, and Jones.

     More than 850,000 people reported living in hotels or similar housing.



SOURCE:  Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

Census Tip In Alphabetizing Names In A Locale

I learned a really helpful census trick when using Ancestry dot com's database, and did not record from whom I copied it. It has come in really helpful when I want to quickly find relatives of someone who I knew lived in that area. As an added bonus, you'd be surprised at the number of times that future spouses' names appear living in nearby households. 

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ANCESTRY QUICK TIP

Sometimes I could not read a last name on a census record. 

I found that if you put in the State, County, and Township in
the index search engine without a name, all the names of the
people in the township appear in alphabetical order. 

Just scroll down to the first letter of the last name and see if
you can find how to spell the person's name. Right now this
would work for the 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850,
1870, and 1920 census. And for part of the 1930 census at
Ancestry.com/