1940 census

Searching For Ancestors – Look At Military Records To Enrich Your Family Tree

Humans have been fighting and waging war since day one. You no doubt have an ancestor who was in the military and finding those records will help fill out your family tree. I have never heard a veteran, or heard about a veteran, who talked much about the war they were in and their involvement. It is up to you to find the records.

First, find out when and where the family member served and his or her branch and rank. look through the house and see if you can find photographs, newspaper clippings, diaries and correspondence they may have sent home. if you put flowers on the family graves, look to see if there is a military marker on a grave. The government may have provided a plain gravestone.

Maybe, you will find an old khaki colored garment or even a uniform or a navy pea coat or heavy woolen cap. these are clues to broaden your search and look for military records. You might even find a sword or a gun.

The census records have a column pertaining to military status. The 1840 census asked for the names and exact ages of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services. Then, you can search for Revolutionary War records. Pensioners included both veterans and widows.

Since the United States Federal Census for 1890 was all but completely destroyed in a fire in January 1921 at the Commerce Building in Washington D.C., the 1890 Veteran’s schedule is an alternative means of documenting veterans or widows of veterans from the Civil War and War of 1812 who were still living and collecting pensions in 1890.

This census asked whether a person was a soldier, sailor, or marine during the Civil War or a widow of such a person, when enlisted and the length of service and any disability incurred. Practically all of the schedules for the states Alabama through Kansas, and approximately half of those for Kentucky were destroyed, possibly by fire, before the transfer of the remaining schedules to the National Archives in 1943. The surviving records, and those for Louisiana through Wyoming and the District of Columbia are available on microfilm through the National Archives and your local Family History Center.

The 1910 census asked whether a person was a survivor of the Union or Confederate Army or Navy. The 1930 census asked whether a person was a veteran of the US Army Military or Naval Forces, yes or no and whether you were mobilized for any war or expedition.

WWI registration records are wonderful as 24 million men registered for the WWI draft in 1917 and 1918. they show name, age, address, citizenship, color of eyes and hair, build, names of parents or nearest relative. The name of the employer is also listed and the cards are signed by the registrant.

Similar records are available for World War II. there are 8 million names of U.S. Army enlistees for the years 1938-1946.

Ancestry has military records that you can search free until November 14. We have ancestors who may have possibly served in the Revolutionary War so I typed in the name and state and found some possible records.

Old West Point applicants records are free until Sunday. 1805-1866 are the years covered and the papers include applicants’ letters requesting appointment and the War Department letters of acceptance and the letters of acceptance from the candidate. It is really neat to read the letters and signatures of your ancestor. more than 115,000 graduates who went on to military careers are named, such as General Custer who graduated last in his class at West Point.

Free all the time indexes on Ancestry are:World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942, U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865, U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798-1940 and British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920. US Vital Records also offers free look-ups November 11 and 12.

There are many records from the Civil War online. I was surprised to read that a book has been written documenting the dead from the War of 1812. It is well worth it to search for your family members who served in the military.

In Search of … The 1940 Census Records « A Worthington Weblog

I learned early this morning, before the coffee had completely finished brewing, that Ancestry.com had loaded some 1940 Census Records.

My Preparation work had paid off. When I went to get some shut-eye a few hours earlier, I had printed my 9 page Who to Search for, and where, and it was sitting on the keyboard when went to Ancestry.com. here I thought I would have a couple of hours before the images were there. so, I am glad I had that print out ready to go.

Ancestry.com had Virgin Islands, Rhode Island, Panama Canal, Nevada, Maine, Indiana, Guam, District of Columbia, Delaware, and American Samoa.

I remembered that I had a family in the 1930 Census at Fort Amador, Balboa District, Panama Canal Zone. I don’t know much about this family, so really didn’t know IF I would find anything about them. 60 pages of images later, nothing. not a big deal.

I know that a cousin, David Reed, lived in DC and that there is a Worthington house in Georgetown. so, to the District of Columbia records I went.

Could not find the street address in the Enumeration District where the house is located. found surrounding streets, but not this one. will look for that house later. just trying to see who lived in it in 1940.

Some of you may remember David Reed. he and I went back and forth on a Worthington Email list for a number of years. Some of the Worthington researchers may remember a gathering at the Monocacy Battle Ground, in Frederick, where the Worthington House Trail was open and David was the guest speaker. It was his Grandfather, Judge Glenn Howard Worthington who wrote a book about his Civil War Experience.

I had David’s address before he passed away, so I looked to see if he was in that house in the 1940 Census. found the house, saw it on Google Earth, but another family was living there at the time.

Don’t have others in the loaded 1940 Census Records yet, so I did a batch of Indexing, just to get back in the hang of that, while I wait.

The 1940 Census Records, as of this moment, are not available for us to index.

My 9 page report is almost complete with the 1930 Locations, addresses and ED listing, and hand written 1940 ED listings are almost done. Back to Steve Morse’s website to identify the rest.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2012 at 9:41 am and is filed under Genealogy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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A History of Las Vegas – The Early Years (1930 & 1940)

The 1930′s were in a way, the birth of Las Vegas. the city wasn’t built in the 30′s, no that’s not the case, but until this time the city really held no place in the minds and eyes of America or the world abroad. it was just a dusty spot of the map that didn’t offer anything that other more well known cities did.

The turning point was when the congress authorized the construction of a new dam. Now knows as Hoover Dam, the originally named Boulder Dam brought thousands of workers to the Las Vegas area & changed Las Vegas’ history forever.

It’s pretty easy to envision. At the time that the dam was built, gambling had be re-legalized. There were thousands of men, away from their families, with disposable pay that they had gotten from their job building this new dam. they had nothing to do at night & were alone, so how better to spend their time than to cruise the strip & spend a few bucks in the casinos?

Of course, this wave of workers left upon completion & the city had to work to find other visitors to fill their hotels and casinos. Luckily, the dam played a part in getting people to the area. Coined the Eighth Wonder of the World, the Boulder Dam (now the Hoover), brought droves of tourists into the Las Vegas area. they had to stay somewhere, and Las Vegas was more than happy to accommodate them in their hotels.

Compared to today’s standards, Las Vegas of the 1930′s was still just a spec on the map. Even with all the attention the area received due to the building of the new dam, the number of tourists and people coming to Las Vegas in the 1930′s was nowhere near what it is today or in other eras of its’ history. the 1930′s definitely marked the beginning of the city’s popularity, however, and cannot be overlooked when examining the city’s long and colorful history.

It wasn’t until the 1940′s, during World War II that Las Vegas began to build the reputation that it’s known for today. with the incorporation of some important and well know figures of the time, Las Vegas was able to build on it’s already small fame & bring in loads more attention to start to become what we know it to be today.

In 1941, the El Rancho Vegas was build. This luxurious hotel was build on what’s now known as the South Vegas Strip. It’s founder and owner Bugsy Siegel popularized the hotel with Hollywood celebrities, and it became the destination for many of the time’s big Hollywood names.

The El Rancho was just the start of the booming luxury hotel industry in the city. More and more hotels were opened, each one hoping to outdo it’s competition with lavish amenities. This was the start of Las Vegas’ rise to become the entertainment capital of the world. Throughout the 1940′s Las Vegas was the premier destination for Hollywood stars.

It was this Hollywood connection that made the town shine in the eyes of the public. In addition to the droves of Hollywood elite, there also came the mob connection. This is something that Las Vegas is not proud of today, but well know underground gangsters, such as Siegel, were building more and more hotels in Las Vegas, something that can’t be ignored in its’ history.

These hotels were hosting some of the biggest entertainment names on their stages, making Vegas the entertainment capitol of the world. Big names such as Jimmy Durante, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Bill Robinson, Sonja Henie, and more all contributed to such fame. the 1940′s were the decade that really drove Vega’s fame home to the American public. after this period, Vegas was forever synonymous with fame and glamor in America, something that it pride’s itself on today.

Searching For Your Ancestors? Look in the 1810-1840 Censuses to Find Your Family

The 1810 to the 1840 censuses are not especially helpful for tracing your family unless you find them in the 1790, then the 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840 and in the 1850 censuses. you do see the county, state, name of the head of the family, the number of free white males, females and other free souls and the number of slaves. Ages are listed as 0-10, 10-16, 16-26, 26-45, 45 up on the 1800 and 1810 census. the 1830 census age is listed up to and over 100 years. if you are certain of your family surname and their approximate ages and where they lived, then these censuses are useful for finding your ancestors.

China, the country with the largest population, took the first census over 4,000 years ago. the first censuses were taken to estimate the taxes the population owed to the king or whoever was in power. the word census comes from the Latin word censere, to assess. in ancient Rome it meant to count the people and evaluate their property for taxation. it was taken every 5 years. India, Egypt, Persia, Rome and the Incan Empire took the earliest censuses.

Most of the countries of the world take periodic censuses, most of them every ten years. Russia has relatively few census records for the population. Canada censuses are valuable as they are conducted in five-year intervals. the first was taken in 1871 and it counted the population of Nova Scotia, Ontario, new Brunswick and Quebec. many immigrants came to Canada before entering the United States as the voyage was cheaper and they may just have stayed there a few years.

Denmark censuses are valuable for genealogists as the vital records, that are written in Danish, are very difficult to read. a statistical census was taken in 1771 and it covered Copenhagen, Sjaelland, Mon, and Bornholm. After that, censuses followed somewhat regularly in 1787, 1801, and 1834, and between 1840 and 1860, the censuses were taken every five years, and then every ten years until 1890. Special censuses for Copenhagen were taken in 1885 and 1895. the last one was taken in 1970 and a limited one taken in 1976. the information is available online at Dansk Dem ografisk Database and Arkivalier Online or just Google Denmark census. one hundred years after the last one taken it will be available to search. in the United States the time is 72 years, thus the 1940 United States Federal Census will be available in 2012.

German censuses disappoint genealogists because except for the 1939 one, they are statistical only. Some of the German states and cities took censuses and these records are available for genealogists at local latter Day Saints Family History Centers. Genealogists could use passenger records and census records in the United States after 1900 to find the year of immigration and the area their German ancestors lived. Wars caused havoc with records as areas were renamed. Germany conquered part of Denmark during the second world war. the government supposedly did issue a census in 1895, but it is riddled with inaccuracies.

Genealogists love census records as they have much data recorded in one easy-to-read place. if you can find your family year after year in the same place, you are pretty sure you have the right bunch of ancestors.

1940 census eagerly awaited

The parents of Janis Test were newlyweds living in West Texas when the 1940 census was taken during World War II.

And although Test, who works at the Abilene Public Library, knows a lot about her family, she said she is still curious about what the census could reveal that she doesn’t already know, such as their income, occupation, who was living with them and where they were living five years earlier.

Family researchers across the nation are excitedly gearing up for the April 2 release of the 1940 census records. The Abilene Public Library usually sees an uptick in genealogy interest when census records are made public, Test said.

“We always have a lot of people eager for the release of the information,” she said.

A new batch of census records are released about every 10 years. The government releases the records 72 years after their compilation because of a statutory restriction on access for privacy reasons. Census records essentially capture a day in the life of every family in America.

In 1940 there were 132 million people in the United States. Today, 87 percent of Americans can find a direct link to one or more of them, according to Ancestry.com, a leading genealogical website that, along with others, will be scrambling to index the census so people can more easily find relatives.

The census records will be made accessible for

free by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. but the National Archives and Records Administration does not provide an index by name. So until one is put together, researchers will need to know where the person they are researching was living in 1940.

Using that address, they can identify the enumeration district and then browse the census population schedules for that district.

The National Archives has copies of the enumeration district maps and descriptions online. The digital images of the 1940 census records will be available for free online, as well.

Ancestry.com has offered to make the census data available for free through 2013 starting in mid-April.

“The release of the 1940 U.S. Census will be an exciting event for any American interested in learning more about their family history,” said Ancestry.com CEO Tim Sullivan in a news release. “By making this hugely important collection free to the public for an extended period, we hope to inspire a whole new generation of Americans to start researching their family history.”

Computers for researching the census and other records are available for free at the Abilene Public Library, which has a subscription to Ancestry.com for library members. The census will be available online for people to view on their computers at home, as well.

No one knows how long it will take to index the 1940 census.

People will be working on it all over the world, said Janet Klinker, an Abilene genealogist. Klinker volunteers at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Family History Center, 3325 N. 12th St. The history center is another great resource for local genealogists.

Klinker said she is looking forward to the release of the 1940 census but is still searching the 1930 census for her mother, who lived on a California farm at the time.

The Abilene Public Library has microfilm copies of all census records up to 1930, but will not be purchasing the 1940 census on microfilm, Test said. because of budget considerations, and because the census will be online, the library opted to not purchase microfilm, which is expensive.

Digging through census records can be difficult, especially if the person’s name was misspelled or they weren’t living where it was believed they were or if they weren’t born yet, said Test, who added that people sometimes have misconceptions about what records are available to the public.

She encouraged people to try to think of every variation of the spelling of last names they can when they hit a roadblock. For example, she said her grandfather changed his last name from Cockrum to Cochran. If someone researching him didn’t know that, it would make finding his early records difficult.

Test said that every time a new decade of census records is released to the public, it reveals new information because the questions change from census to census.

Many questions on the 1940 census were standard, such as name, age, gender, race, education and birthplace. New questions included income and who furnished the census information about the family.

A supplemental schedule for two names on each page asks the place of birth of the person’s parents, their usual occupation, and, if the woman had been married more than once, her age at first marriage.