1940 Census - Source / Citation Creation

In the previous post 1940 Census - What Data to be Captured I listed the Facts that I want to capture. Each of us might want to do that. Unlike previous census years and that there isn't a "printer friendly" page that can be printed and written on, I created a spreadsheet.

In the past, I would print the "printer friendly" page and take notes from the Image. This gets me to look at the image to gather what I want to capture, but it also lets me look at the whole page, or preceding and following pages for Neighbors.

The spreadsheet does the same for me. I revised it a couple of times until I "got it right" for now at least. But on that spreadsheet I added some other details, that will be used for the Citation.

• NARA File Series
• Series
• Roll
• State
• County
• ED
• Description
• Page # A/B
• Filename

I download and save the image and give it a filename that is meaningful to me. Remember, that at this point, there is no index, no user friendly features, just looking at an image and capturing the data.

Looking at the Image, Recording the data, looking at the neighbors, as usual.

Now to Family Tree Maker.

I am using the Source Template feature in Family Tree Maker. There isn't a set template for the 1940 Census, so for now, I will use the 1930 Template with the Year and Location. All of my Census Templates are in that format. Creating a new Source Template for the County, I paste a "blank" Citation, that will be copied for the remaining Citations for the 1940 Census.

 1940 U.S. census, _________ County, _______ [State], [Location], population schedule, enumeration district (ED) _____, page __ [(stamped)] or sheet __ [(handwritten)], dwelling __, family ___, line ____, [Name of Person]; digital image, Archives.gov (http://1940census.archives.gov: accessed ________ [Date]); citing NARA microfilm publication T627, roll _______

I will then ADD a new Citation for the first family / household and fill in the blanks from the worksheet.

I will switch to the Media Tab, and Add the 'new' Media file to that citation. That's where the Filename come in handy.

So, the Citation screen looks like this:

That top line, on the left, is the "fill in the blanks" citation. I then copied that to the first real Citation, which appears on the Right. The media file has been selected, and I put them into the Media Category of Census - Federal.

So far, not data has been entered, only the Citation has been completed. From here, the data entry will begin, and when an entry has been made, the Link To Existing menu will be used to Link the Fact to this Citation.

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington