The Social Media Guide for Ancestral Research: FindMyPast

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

National Archives Prepares for the 1940 Census!

The National Archives is also preparing for the release of the 1940 Census on April 2nd at 9 am EST!

The image on the left of this blog is from their website and to add to the excitement they have a 3 minute film clip about the 1940 census preparations being handled by the National Archives for the last three years.

The film is spliced between scenes of those preparing the records and clips from that time period. They state there are 3.9 million images and all have been checked to make sure that each page had an enumeration district. They state that you can locate individuals if you have the enumeration district and provide a guide on how to locate that information.

Their site provides information on how to search this census with help on locating the enumeration district ones' family may be located. Some of the information they provide is as follows:

General Information
Questions about this census
Questions asked
Selected lists of codes
Finding aids: How to search the 1940 Census
Enumeration District Maps
Stephen P. Morse's Search Engines
Videos (these are worth viewing)
Online articles

They have a countdown on their page which goes right down to the seconds and the link to their press release on February 21, 2012 provides some additional data.

Indexing this census will make searching it so much easier! To all who have volunteered and are ready to go, we who are researchers say thank you! Note that this is a joint venture between the following groups:

Archives.net

FamilySearch.org

FindMyPast.co.uk

National Genealogical Society

Federation of Genealogical Societies

Association of Professional Genealogists

Along with the awesome community of individuals who will be assisting with this great work! Bloggers, communities, societies, everyone who helps is to be commended for their work!

We live in exciting times as we contemplate the reality that this is the first census to be released digitally! If you haven't signed up, please do at http://the1940census.com/.

Comments and Suggestions are always welcomed!

Building Bridges for All Generations!

Claire (*)

Timeless Genealogies

We're Your Family is "No. 1"

Blogs

http://timelessgen.blogspot.com

http://gen-reflections.blogspot.com

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/TimelessGenealogies

Twitter @TimelessGen

claire@timelessgen.com

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Indexing..a way to 'Pay it Forward'

As the clock ticks closer to the release of the 1940 US Federal Census, individuals are working together to interest people, communities and societies to help with indexing these valuable records. This particular census is being released as 'free digital images" from the National Archives.

This community project is a joint effort between Archives.com, FamilySearch, FindMyPast.com and many other organizations. While access to these records will be made available on April 2nd, searching them will be only through browsing until the indexing is completed.

Using the FamilySearch Indexing software individuals will be able to participate in bringing these records to light for the millions waiting to be found. A more in dept explanation of what is in this census, the statistics and the rich history attached to it are available on a website entitled "1940 US Census Project".

Indexing is no stranger to those who use and know genealogical records and databases. Over the years, dedicated individuals have transcribed countless names from just about any type of record source one can think of and either put it in book form, created a CD or a database. Today this whole process has been streamlined through the FamilySearch indexing process. The story of a whole family of indexes was recently shared in the FamilySearch Blog entitled "A Family of Indexes" and worth the read.

FamilySearch Indexing has its own Facebook page where individuals share their stories and comments and get additional information. Additionally, they have an Indexing website and a FamilySearch Indexing forum for questions and answers. FamilySearch Support is available through phone, chat and messaging along with video guides and tutorials to help individuals at all levels of computer expertise.

In today's venacular one often hears, "There's an app for that" and so too there is an application that has just been released for Indexing.

This application is available for both the Apple market and the Android Market and is a free download. While this is in a beta form it is fully functionable and allows individuals to use snippets of time to index one name at time.

With all these great resources available at one's fingertips, the time is now to become part of a worldwide volunteer force to make historic records searchable online for free!