Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Are you ready for the 1940 Census - A Test

 Earlier, I have posted how to generate a list of people you might find in the 1940 Census.



There is flexibility in how you can start with. This does NOT get into Where to find them, since the 1940 Census, initially, will not be indexed.

The next piece is the ability to update that list, by removing those you have already found.

I created a 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940 Census Report. Each as it's own Saved Report, with the Selected Individuals. 

To take this to the next step, as we find our ancestors in any Census, how about the report removing them from the list, once you have found them, without having to do anything but to run the Saved Report again.

NOTE:  When I find someone in a Census Record, I record that as a Residence Fact, with the Census Record Citation, as the documentation of where the person lived on that specific date.

In preparation for the 1940 Census release, I wanted to test out HOW to know who I still need to look for. I decided to test how I was doing with the 1930 Census. This will be my test, or further preparation for the 1940 Census.

Go to the Publish Workspace, Saved Reports, and select, for this example, the 1930 Census Record. This was created in the earlier blog postings. Selecting this Saved Report will bring up the list of people I had in that report.














What I want to do now, is to Add the Residence FACT to the Report. Selecting the Items To Include ICON, in the Right Hand (RH) Panel will bring up the Items to include menu. Clicking on the Green Plus (+) ICON, will bring up the list of Facts to be included in the Report. Scrolling down and selecting Residence. 









Below is a piece of the report just created. You will notice that there are already two 1930 Residence Facts in the report. One shows a Family Number, from that Census Record. But, I want that person not to show up in the list of people I am searching for in the 1930 Census.

 










Will now select the Selected Individuals Button on the Right, as we did earlier, with the Names still in the Left Window, we will now < Filter OUT, all Facts, and scrolling down to Residence, and select Contains. This is indicating that we want the Residence Fact that Contains, something. That will be defined next. 














Continuing, Residence Fact that Contains 1930. Further, not knowing, nor caring at this point, the Alternate Facts box is selected. I normally select the most recent Residence Fact as preferred. But, for this test, that is not important..  














So, the resulting report showed that I only have 2 people to look for in the 1930 census. It should be noted, that this is my Direct Line. The earlier blog posts can then be adjusted to include others.









This was a test to see if I am ready for the 1940 Census. It worked so well, that I am using this same procedure for previous census years. The Adjustments for the Birth and Death Dates are changed based on the Census Year.

In working with the Filter In and Filter Out, and based on the data in my files, I used the Census Year, not the date the Census was taken. (01 April 1940). 

The next task will be to identify Enumeration Districts for Browsing the Census Records when they are made available to us.











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 Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

8 comments:

  1. What is the rush though? You'll still work at it one family at a time, I hope, so you don't miss any vital information. The 1940 Census will help me figure out some of the more complex family situations of the 20th century (including something of an Oedipus story, where I suspect the stepmom went on to marry stepson), but it won't make everything in my tree suddenly fall into place. It's just another source of information.

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  2. Taco,

    Actually, this was helpful to me in looking for all Census Records.

    Good luck with figuring out your family situations.

    Thank you,

    Russ

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  3. I didn't really mean you in particular, Russ. It just seems to me there is some sort of race on, as in who can find the most people the quickest once the images come online. The research techniques you are describing in your posts are very helpful indeed, and have a broader scope than just the 1940 census. Thank you for sharing them with us.

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  4. Taco,

    I don't know about others, but I think it's not so much about the race that you described, but rather the fact that the Indexes won't be ready for quite a while. BUT, there are things that can be done ahead of time to prepare.

    Also, many of us, at least the Genea-Bloggers I follow, on this topic, will be Indexing 04/02/2012. That is where our focus / energy will be when they come out.

    And yes, what I posted can be used with other Census Years.

    Thank you,

    Russ

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  5. Russ - Great series of posts on this topic. I had never really thought of using filters this way...

    One basic question: After you've found a number of folks in the census and added Residence facts to their record, do you have to reapply the filter for them to be removed from the report? Or do you just have to rerun (click the Generate Report button)?

    I wasn't sure if FTM stored the various sequence of filters as part of the report and dynamically reapplied them, or not.

    Thanks again!

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  6. Michael,

    Thank you.

    Yes, I have found that you need to reapply that filter, where people have been found in that census year.

    I have submitted an enhancement request to have the filters be re-applied, the next time that report is run.

    Hope this helps,

    Good luck,

    Russ

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  7. That does help, Russ, thanks. And makes perfect sense; it's what I expected, given the way the filter functions work.

    One other thought I had: As you're gathering enumeration districts for the 1940 census, where are you capturing/documenting them?

    Personally, I don't currently use the "census" fact and I'm thinking I might use that to document the EDs, or I may create a custom fact called "enumeration." I can assign them a date of 1940, just like we use for the Residence fact, as well as capture any other information I used to determine the ED (street address, 1930 ED, etc.) in the research notes.

    Best of all, I can use your census reporting technique to keep a working list of 1940 people that I haven't found an ED for yet.

    Thoughts?

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  8. Michael,

    Actually, the EDs are listed in the Citation. I have been thinking about where else to put it, for reporting, but haven't decided about it's use. I do have the Street #, Dwelling #, Family #, recorded in the Residence Fact, and IF I have a full address, I put that into the Address Fact.

    I may come back and revisit the ED issue.

    The other hint, for me, is that I use the Year and Location Census Record Template. So, I will just work From the 1930 Census Sources and Citations, by County, for the 1940 Census.

    I have been spending a lot of time cleaning up my file in this area, and I think, that if I do this right, by County, I'll find the 1940 folk.

    Thank you,

    Russ

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