Tag Archives: enumerator

Genealogy

Census Sunday-More Then Just Grandma and Grandpa In The Census….a neat surprise!

Silas J. McCartney and Family 1920 Census
Silas J. McCartney and Family 1920 Census

As I wander through the census records I very rarely visit the top the page unless I am looking to cite a page that does contain information that I am going to use. I received a very nice surprise when I was taking a look at this bit of the census from Norton Township in Barberton, Summit County, Ohio.

I was in search of my second great-grandfather and his family. Thanks to  Ancesty I did find them in the 1920 census, everyone listed properly ! I love it when that happens, no questions no second guessing, it indeed was them.  I was looking for Silas J. McCartney and his wife Nancy “Nannie” …….. before I tell you what I found, how about you check the page out and figure what little surprise I received.  Did you figure it out??
Silas was the enumerator on this census in this area, so along with his family history I also have in my records one whole page of his hand writing. I have to say for an enumerator it wasn’t too bad. Thank you grandpa for leaving a clue!

May your hunts through the census bring you many little surprises!

Happy Hunting

1940 U.S. Census Community Project, Genealogy

To Index or Not to Index- to borrow a phrase

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Okay, you say what is the fuss? Maybe you are thinking to yourself, what a daunting task indexing the 1940 census is.

The fuss, genealogical speaking, is that we will shortly have a look into our own grandparents and parents lives. The 1930 was awesome, but the 1940 census enumerated 18 yrs before I was born (you really don’t have to bother to do the math !), it will capture both of my parents and  my grandparents and a few of my great grandparents.

Daunting task, sure if one person does the indexing or even 100 would be indexing the census. The more folks we get to index the less time it will take to get the thing indexed! Is it hard, in one word NO. There is a wonderful program that you will install, if anyone has worked with the program called Transcript it is very much the same. The census page will show up in the upper part of the screen and on the lower will be the areas for you to fill in. Probably the only difficulty you might run into is either bad image  or hand writing that is hard to read. The writing should be somewhat easier to read as it is closer to the cursive that we learned in school.

I would urge you to visit the U.S 1940 Census Community Project and sign up to index. After you sign up and download the program you will find a practice 1940 census that you can try. I have indexed for a while and the great part is you go at your own speed and they don’t hound you about what you have or have not accomplished! Do you have five minutes a day! Perfect, 2 hours wonderful! Just take a few and help out.

After you have done the run through of the 1940 sample there is a contest that you can enter at U.S 1940 Census Community Project information is found here.

Who will you find in the 1940 Census!

Happy Hunting!

As part of the1940census.com ambassador program this blog post enters me into a drawing for a Kindle Fire