Tulsa Genealogists Excited About Census Release

The National Archives released the 1940 Census information Monday, for the first time allowing online access to images of the original documents at no cost. The release gives researchers their first look at household specific data from the period just after the Great Depression and just before World War Two.

"Most everyone is going to know people on the 1940 Census, so it's going to be more meaningful to all of us" says Kathy Huber, genealogy librarian with the Tulsa Library.

For genealogists, the Census is the gold standard of ancestral information, because it contains information about everyone in a household, their relationships and income. It focused in particular on how people were faring after the Depression.

"The 1940 Census has new questions that have never been on the earlier ones" says Huber. "It also asks where you were living in 1935 so you get a location in between the Census, because a lot of people moved around, and you can't find them, so this gives you information to look for them in other records."

Patricia Cauthron is busy researching her ancestors - and she's already learned a lot.

"I have set on my mother's side - they owned the New York Yankees, they were named Topper and they lived on 5th Avenue!" she said.

This kind of research usually involves microfilm and lots of patience, or plowing through books - which may or may not be easy to find.

With the release of the scanned documents from the National Archives, the US Community Project has begun a volunteer effort to transcribe and index the information so the records will be searchable by name. Until that effort is completed, researchers will need to know where their relatives lived in order to find their Census records.

"I'll be able to find cousins and nieces and nephews, and where they lived," Cauthron said.

Even though the information was released - you may have to wait to see it. The Census Bureau says 37 million people tried to look at it in the first 4 hours and that overloaded the system.