A valuable resource awaits
family historians
by: Judi Hasson | from: AARP Bulletin
| April 26, 2012
It’s a big deal when
personal details from a U.S. census are released, 72 years later, to the
public. Family history buffs and historians get their
first access to information about every American citizen at a moment in time —
details that, by federal law, were until then restricted. But April’s release of the 1940 census has aroused special
interest.
Besides name, age,
gender, race, occupation, relationship to householder and place of birth, the
1940 census includes income and level of education. And, for the first time,
logs painstakingly handwritten by census workers who trudged door to door were
digitally scanned and are now on the National Archives website.
Related
Various projects under
way — the 1940
U.S. Census Community Project, the USGenWeb Project and Ancestry.com — aim to
make these records searchable by name and street address. For now, however, to
browse for a specific record it’s helpful to know a person’s address to
determine the appropriate census enumeration district — one of 147,000
geographic areas that carve up the U.S. map.
And, as always, if you
don’t have access to a birth certificate, you — or an heir or legal
representative — can order an official transcript of your own
Census data to help you qualify for Social Security and other retirement
benefits, obtain a passport, settle estates and in other situations. The cost
is $65 per record. If you have questions, call the National Processing Center
at 812-218-3046 or send a fax to 812-218-3371.
You may also like: How to obtain vital records.
Tom Sutor
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