How to Display Data ?

I have been thinking about the ways we can display our data, usually for ourselves. For example, the 1940 Census.

My family lived in a town, with about 36 of them living in this same town. FTM2012 is great for generating reports one where folks lived, and with the new hierarchical format we are able to gather and see them together.

For example, this is a Report for the 1940 Census Records that I have in my database. I have blogged about this before, on how to create this report.

 With the new update, to FTM2012, we now can see these addresses in a new format. I should mention, that IF the 1940 Census had the street address, I added an Address entry but make the Address Facts private.

I have moved all of my Addresses into the new format and here is a screen capture of what that looks like.

 I haven't displayed the full address, but you can get the idea (that column can be widened to see the full address.

BUT, that isn't a good visual presentation on how close or how far those places are, in relationship to one another.

I took the data and created a Google Map for presentation of the same information. Zooming in on the map, and moving around a little, you can see houses, zooming in and out you can see how close the "family" lived in 1940. There is information with each of those houses.

View 1940 US Census Households in a larger map


This is great on displaying the information that I do have, but how to I identify that data that I don't have. Hmmmm
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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

I am providing a link to this Ancestry.com Blog post when finding problems with the 1940 Census Images on their website.

How Can I Improve the 1940 U.S. Census?

I have used this process and it does work. I have received a number of e-mail messages confirming that the index and the transcription information was updated.


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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Ancestry.com Releases Completely Searchable 1940 U.S. Federal Census

Ancestry.com Releases Completely Searchable 1940 U.S. Federal Census

A searchable index to 134 million records makes researching family history in the latest available U.S. Census dramatically easier 

PROVO, UTAH – (August 3, 2012) – Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, is proud to announce that it has completed the records indexing process for the 1940 U.S. Federal Census, which is available at www.ancestry.com/1940census. All 134 million records are now easily searchable by name, date, place of birth and other key information recorded in the census. These records, which are free to search, offer valuable insight for the nearly 90 percent of Americans who either have family members recorded in the 1940 U.S. Census or are in it themselves. 

Since the initial release of the 1940 U.S. Census by the National Archives in April, Ancestry.com has progressively published information from this important family history resource state by state. Ancestry.com has made this vital family history information while providing an engaging user experience including the ability to search for maiden names or other family names, often a roadblock when searching records. Additionally, users can make corrections or update information that is incomplete, leading to a better overall database of information.

Assisting in navigation of the 1940 U.S. Census is Ancestry.com’s Interactive Image Viewer, which enables users to easily peruse document pages with simple graphical overlays. The viewer adds highlights, transcriptions and other functionality directly on the Census page. This enables searchers access to small census fields by simply scrolling over them for a pop up that magnifies the information recorded by census takers.  With the ability to zoom in on individual records, these new features dramatically improve the usability of the 1940 U.S. Census, which previously only included images of the paper records. These paper records, handwritten in small entry fields, have traditionally been very hard to read, making the visual enhancements in the Interactive Viewer a huge improvement.

“We are so excited to be publishing our index to the 1940 U.S. Federal Census for free on Ancestry.com,” said Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry.com. “As one of the most anticipated family history resources ever, the 1940 Census is a fantastic way for almost every American to get started making discoveries about their family history as well as a key new resource for so many of our two million existing subscribers.  Experienced through our new Interactive Image Viewer, the stories and discoveries inside the 1940 Census really come to life.”

Users can now find basic information such as their ancestors’ names and where they lived, but also gain more insight about their ancestors’ daily lives. This information includes whether they owned or rented their home, the value of the residence and how many people resided there. For the first time, census takers in 1940 also asked questions specific to income and education. Interestingly, details like prior military service, the ability to read or write, and whether citizens spoke English – all asked in prior censuses – were not asked in 1940.

The entire census can be viewed online at www.ancestry.com/1940census

About Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with approximately 2 million paying subscribers. More than 10 billion records have been added to the site in the past 15 years. Ancestry users have created more than 38 million family trees containing more than 4 billion profiles. In addition to its flagship site www.ancestry.com, Ancestry.com offers several localized Web sites designed to empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include our ability to digitize content, to provide desired content to our subscribers, to make our services convenient to use and to otherwise satisfy customer expectations. Information concerning additional factors that could cause events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements is contained under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, and in discussions in other of our Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date and we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements.

  

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FTM2012 - 580 - 1940 Census Support

This patch also included a new, or an updated Template to include the 1940 US Census.

Going to the Sources Workspace, selected Add, New, and typing "cen" for census, without the quotes, there are two 1940 Census Templates. Year only, or Year and Location.

The good news, the work that I had for the 1940 Census were automatically updated, which was very good. (for me at least)

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

1940 Census - Summary of Work

A month's worth of work has been completed, following the release of the 1940 U.S. Census. I thought that I would make a summary of what I was able to find in these Images.

I ended up with:

6 New Sources. That is Census Records in 1940 by Location. Or 6 Counties where I was able to locate and identify people in my file

23 New Citations. That is really 23 Households that I was able to find, just scanning through the census images

92 People in my file, were listed in these Households

2 of the 92 ended up with the Supplementary Question list (see below)

The people per household averaged 4 with a range of 2 to 9.

I documented 719 Facts, many were new, some were additional citations on information already in my file.

One of the 2 "special" people was a Student, which confirmed what I already knew, but the 2nd person, a female, now has a To Do List item. Find that extra Child. I know of 2 children, but the answer to in column 50 was 3

These numbers do not reflect information that was gathered from previous census records that I picked up during this past month.

I should mention that all of the Facts have been documented with, my understanding at least, the correctly formatted Citation. Oh, and it's all in my Ancestry Member Tree that is in Sync with my file on my PC.

Lesson Learned: It was certainly worth the time and effort to Manually Scan through these images and not wait until they become searchable. I was (almost) amazed as to the number of households that were on the SAME Page, on the Census Record.

________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

What to put into your Citation? - hint's

It's interesting as to how much information I miss after looking at the various screens in Family Tree Maker.

I have been struggling with Citations. If you have been following this blog, you will understand the struggle.

What I was missing was right in front of me, all of the time. That is the "hints" that are one the screens that we look at.

I'll start with a screen capture of the "Free Form" Source screen, when you want to add a new Citation. I have selected a known, no template used, Source, and clicked on Add, in the upper right. Look at what is grayed out in the red box.

What the Citation Detail box says "Enter the title, page #, file #, volume, Internet address". That is what is suggested to enter into this field.

In the Citation Text box says "Enter pertinent text from the source and/or an explanation of the relevance of the data to your research". Again, that is the suggested information to enter.

What is most helpful, and I just actually read the screen, is when you use the Template Feature. My question was "What do I entered into the Citation Details and Citation Text fields"

As you may now, is that different Census Records from various years,  and what should be entered into these two field. Here is the 1870 Census Template, clicking on Add (a new Citation) you see:

I already selected the 1870 Template, by Census Year and Location. The Hints for a New Citation, in the Citation Detail says:

Enter the civil division, page number consulted, dwelling number, family number, and person(s) of interest.

Citation Text is basically the same as before:

Enter pertinent text from the source and/or an explanation of the relevance of the data to your research.

What I should have looked at these hints much earlier. Here is the hints for the 1930 Census, which is what I suggested for the 1940 Census.

The Citation Detail says:

Enter the civil division, page number consulted, enumeration district, sheet number, street name, house number, dwelling number, family number, and person(s) of interest

The Citation Text:

Enter pertinent text from the source and/or an explanation of the relevance of the data to your research.


One more example, is a World War II Draft Registration:

Citation Detail:

Enter the date the record was accessed, a description of the item, ARC or other identifying number, and credit line (how the information is credited on the website)

Citation Text: same as above.

Lesson Learned: Follow the hints:


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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Adding Pictures of Houses from the 1940 Census

Since I spent some time checking my data, entering Address Fact information, Citing that data with the 1940 Census record (with media file), I thought it would be interesting to add a photo of the house, as it exists today. Now, I do have some old photographs, dating closer to that Census Date, so the same process is used for those older picture.

Below is the People Workspace, Person View, with the Address Facts listed in the Left Column. Note the "padlock" ICON to the left of the Address text. That means this Fact is Privatized.

Selecting the 1940 Census, shows the Citation from that Census Record in the Right Column. I entered 1940 in the Date field, and the street address in the Place Field. The Place Name Authority warning is set to Ignore. I know the format is not correct, but for this Fact, it's the way I wanted it.

Note the Citation had a Media File, the Census Record, and selecting New:

Selecting Add New Media:

This will bring up a window, where you navigate to where the Media file is located. I save my original photos elsewhere on my hard drive:

The filename has been selected and that filename is put into the File Name field on this Windows screen:

NOTE: I have a specific filenaming convention for my FTM2012 file. Basically, it starts with "house", then underscore,  a 2 character location indicator, then the street address.

This brings up a FTM2012, Copy to Media Folder screen, with the option to put this image into a Category.

The Link To has two options: The first is to COPY the media file from where it is currently located and putting a COPY of it, into the Media Folder for this file. The other option is just to link to that file, in its current location. I use the Copy option.

 As you may be able to see, I have a Category for Houses. You can always Add a New Category, but I have already been using the category.

The end result is a Copy of the Census Record and a photo of the house as it exists today.

The remaining step, talked about elsewhere, is to put a Caption on that Media File.
________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Did I caputure everything from the 1940 Census?

I thought I needed a final check up on the data that I collected from the 1940 Census.

I had a blog post that talked about the data I wanted to gather from the 1940 Census.

1940 Census - What Data to be Captured

I created a quick report that I could look at quickly

1940 Census - Data Entry Check

But after I had done that, for another project, within my database, I wanted to Capture Street Addresses and enter Private Address Facts for each of those Census Records that contained Street Address.

What was helpful, for the 1940 Census preparation, was to have the ED as part of the Residence Fact. That is my indication that the data came from a Census Record. Wanting the Sorting capability, the Residence Fact starts with ED numbers, followed by a Identification Indicator, like Family number, Farm number, or Address. IF the address was there, I picked that up, following the ED information.

Since most of the time, the Residence Fact may not be displayed in a report that I might share, it became very helpful when searching Census Records.

When the Census Record had the Address, I put it into the Address Fact, selected the Option to mark that Fact as Private, so that it won't be seen online, but I captured it for my own use.

Having all of the data for the 1940 Census entered (so far), I wanted a report to make sure I have captured everything from the data that I wanted to capture.

Publish Workspace, Person Collection, Custom Report, is the report I selected.

Now for the Facts that I wanted to capture:

• Name
• Residence
• Address
• Sex
• Marriage Status
• Education
• Birth
• Occupation

 NOTE: I use the undocumented report feature, so I document the sex of the person, when it is offered in that document. that is a choice each of us has to make.

Another choice, was the use of the Marriage Status fact. It's an entry on the 1940 Census AND it has become very helpful in knowing when to look for a Marriage Record. Capturing that fact from previous census records also helped identify that I may need to look somewhere else, if they were Single in the 1930 Census, but didn't show up in the Household, with the parents, in the 1940 Census. My parents were both single in the 1930 Census, I could see that on the Person View, but neither were in their parents Households in the 1940 Census. In this case, I knew that they were married in 1939. When they didn't show up in either household, I knew that I had to look somewhere else, which I did. It's just been helpful to track the Marriage Status, over time. Widow, Divorced, Single, and Married are the entries on the Census Records, so I captured it.

Selecting Items to Include (Left end of the Right Hand Panel) brings up the list of Items to be included in the Report.

I put them in the order from my EXCEL worksheet that I hand wrote the information onto, making the Occupation the last item.

The reason for that is, many entries did not have an occupation listed on the Census, being last was a reminder to me, that it may or may not be there.

For the Address Fact, I looked at the Residence Fact to see if the identification was a Street Address or a Family Number. If the Address, then Address should have an entry.

The next step is to identify who to include in the Report. Selecting "Selected Individuals" brings up the screen where I Filtered IN > any Residence Fact, where the Date was 1940.

This added the 89 people, who I found, so far, in the 1940 Census.

Now the report is run (after clicking OK) and the Review begins.

This first example, shows that is NO Address Fact, because the 1930 and 1940 records used Family Numbers. I did NOT restrict the Residence nor Address as Preferred Only,  in the Items to include, because I wanted a bigger picture, the Address field was that important for my next project.

This next record shows the Residence Fact and the Address Fact.

Notice that the 1930 and 1940 had street addresses, and have an Address fact for both years.

As a matter of fact, the first time I ran this report, one of the Address entries had a typo. When this Address format is used, the Place Name Authority, warning, is Ignored, so that typo's are ignored as well.

I am now confident that I have captured what I wanted from the 1940 Census, Saved this Report in the Saved Report Collection, so that I can run it again, after I add any new folk from the 1940 census.

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Trick - Choosing Existing Source Citation

I'll share a trick that I have learned, when trying to choose from the list of Existing Source Citations. Over time, I have many Citations for a Census Year and Location. Since much of my family was located in the Same County, various Locations, the County list of citations can become very long.

For example: I am working on this person (People Workspace, Person View) and I want to add an Existing Citation, as it's already there, so I click on New (pull down menu), Use Existing Source Citation:

Clicking on that link brings of the list of Citations. I this example, I am looking for 1940 Census Records. So I enter 1940:

And that is what I am to choose from. BUT, which one is mine.

I have a trick that has worked very well for me. BEFORE I go to Link to an Existing Source Citation, I go to that Citation and put a "*" in the Source Details box, first character, followed by a space. This is ONLY a temporary mark.

 Now, when I click on Use Existing Source Citation  I see

So much easier to Identify.

Now, if there are more entries from that SAME Citation and its done in consecutive order, FTM2012 will "remember" that last Citation and will be Selected for the Next "Link to Existing Source Citation".

Working with one Citation makes multiple entries really simple.

When that Citation is completed, then go back and remove that "*".
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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

City Directories - Citations

During the 1940 Census Preparation, I found that the use of City Directories were very helpful. But, how to cite them using the Family Tree Maker Template Feature.

Here is the Ancestry.com City Directory (Beta) version that came with a Web Search.

http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2469

It had the Street address, occupation, place of employment for the person in question.

First, go to the Sources Workspace, select the Add ICON and that will bring up a window where you can select a New Source.

The next window will present a window where you can enter a Keyword (or the first 3 characters of what you have in your hands). In this case, there weren't any Keyword results for City Directory. So, I selected More, and did some choosing.

 
The best selection is Publication - Books, CDs, Maps, Leaflets & Videos. With the two pull down menus, I selected Categories of Image Copies, and Online Publications. That described what I was presented from Ancestry.com.

Looking at the Top of the Image, I was able to fill in the fields in the Template form.

The Prompts pointed me to Polk & Co', for the "Surname" field, and R. I. for Given Name.

I filled in what information that was provided.

Linking the Citation to the Fact, the Citation looks like this.

Citation Detail:

West Chester, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1930-31, p. 98

Citation Text:

Record for Jacob Finley

The resulting Reference Note is:

R. L. Polk & Co's, West Chester, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1930 (1930-31), West Chester, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1930-31, p. 98. Record for Jacob Finkey; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com).

Just to check what the EndNote looks like, I ran a report to see the EndNote:

That is in the format, as I understand it, based on Evidence Explained!

Please visit Elizabeth Shown Mill's website:

https://www.evidenceexplained.com/

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

1940 Census Citation - Update

After reviewing previous blog posts about How to Cite 1940 Census Records, I returned to the bible of Genealogical Citations, Evidence Explained. I am revising how I am citing these records.

Please visit Elizabeth Shown Mills’ new website for more details.

This is the template that I am now using.

YYYY U.S. census [Census ID], _______county [County], _______ [State], population schedule, enumeration district (ED) _____,  page __ [(stamped)] or sheet __ [(handwritten)] [Page ID], _______ [Civil Division], _______ [Household ID], _______ [Person of Interest], _______ [Item Type or Format], _______ [Website Title], (_______ [URL], _______ [Date Accessed]), NARA microfilm publication T___, roll ___ [Credit Line][i]

QuickCheck Model
Digital Images
Online Commercial Site
Place & Year as lead elements in Source List

Sample:

1940 U.S. census, Chester County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 15-3, page 3-A (stamped), Birmingham, Family 49, J Marshall Highley, digital image, Ancestry.com, http://ancetry.com, 11 April 2012, NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 3467

Notes:

County and State [Jurisdiction]
population Schedule [Schedule]
County includes the word County If Household ID is present, Line Numbers are superfluous
Page - ## - A / B

1880 ED's Created

I am NOT an expert on this. Would appreciate any comments you might have on this topic

---

[i]Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained, Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, (Baltimore, Maryland, Genealogical Publishing Company, 2007), p. 240

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

1940 Census - Data Entry Check

With the flurry of 1940 Census activity, I thought I better "see how I am doing". I set out to capture some major information on everyone in the 1940 Census, at least on this initial series of information gathering.

What I wanted to capture, was the Education Level, Marriage Status, and Occupation, along with the Residence for 1940. I have also capture the 1935 Residence Fact as well. But, I wanted to create a report to make sure that I did.

I went to the Publish Workspace, Person Collection, and Custom Report. Selected the Items to Include ICON (Right Hand Panel, left ICON), and selected Name, Birth, Marriage, Death, Residence, Education, Marriage Status, and Occupation. Each Fact, had Preferred Only selected. The Sort Order was by Residence, and Residence Description.

What this does, is to keep households together. Any missed "preferred" fact would show up incorrectly, or missing.

I know that the Occupation Fact was not always in the 1940 Census, but the others were.

But Why .... (you didn't ask) would I want the Marriage Status fact. Since it is recorded, I wanted to capture it. This report has shown up some database errors that I may have missed in the past. With this report, I can see the Marriage Date AND that Census Year's Marriage status. That would point me to a database entry issue, or something to follow up on.

Now to identify who would be in the report.

Selecting Specific Individuals to Include in the Right Hand Panel, I selected All Facts, and Residence, Date, Equals 1940, and did not check Alternate Fact. This will ensure that I only have people in the report, where the 1940 Residence Fact is Preferred.

The Preferred Fact can always be changed later. But I wanted to track the 1940 Census. Changes in these settings can be done for other census years.

What this tell me, is that I have found 42 people in the 1940 Census, data entered, and now verified, so far.

The report is clear, to me, that I have captured what I wanted. This person lived where I had expected him to be, had 1 year of collage in 1940, was still single, and worked for Philadelphia Electric. He would later marry my aunt.

During Data Entry, I found some household where people were not listed. So, I created a To Do / Task as I was doing the data entry. So, it is growing. 

Back to more research.

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Ancestry.com Images

From what I understand, Ancestry.com has most, if not all, of the images online and have started to complete indexes. I think I saw a Facebook posting that two states were close to being online.

Here is a quick tour of what I just experienced, using Ancestry.com to locate a family in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

I started at:

http://www.ancestry.com/1940-census

That took me to this page, where I selected, Pennsylvania, Lancaster County, and Little Britain. You will notice that the Enumeration District is 36-110.

Selecting ED 36-110, I was taken to the Ancestry.com Image Viewer, with the first page (of 30) for that ED. The ED is documented on that top line, and the Left and Right arrows are there. Zooming in and out is under the control of your mouse. I have a wireless mouse with a scroll wheel and the zooming is done with that wheel, dragging the image around works, as well as the controls in the upper right of the image window.

 Hint: IF you want to jump to a specific Page, you can enter that page number in the ## of ## box, to the left of the Left (Previous image) or Right (Next image). For example, you get to the 10 image and want to jump back to the 5th one, just type 5 where the 10 is. That will take you from the 10th image to the 5th image. Ease of Navigation (for me at least).

Two tools are in the upper right. The Save button lets you Save the image to your Computer or put a link to your Ancestry Online Tree. Looks like another feature is been planned here.

The Actions menu has more controls, Printing, Sharing and View source. The SHARE is not available, but the Source is.

As a result of less then 5 minutes, I found the family I was looking for.

I also noticed that the Steve Morse's Unified ED Finder in on the website.

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

1940 - Working Report

I have talked about preparation for the 1940 Census, and as I have worked with the Census Images and the Steve Morse website, I made a couple of adjustments to my reports.

The key, was to have the 1930 Records in good shape. Using the editing features within Family Tree Maker, I was able to do the following:

• Identify location detail from the 1930 Census
• Show the Enumeration District information in the report
• Sort the report by Location

 This give me a paper report to take to the Steve Morse website. My way of doing this is to use the Residence Fact to record the location information from the 1930 Census AND making that 1930 Residence Fact as the Preferred Residence Fact.

As I enter 1940 Residence Fact, I am changing the Preferred Fact to the "most recent Residence Fact".

The Census YEAR is put into the Date field. I did look at entering the Date that the Census was actually taken, from the Census Record. But for reporting purposes, just the Year (YYYY) format was the way I went. IF there is questions about birth dates where the Age, as reported in the Census Record and the "Abt" birth Year comes into question, the date can be seen on the Citation Media file (or Census Record).

The Place Name, is in the same format that is taken from the Census Record. That is Town/Township, County, State format. This does two things. Allowing for the use of the Map and for consistency in the Place Name for sorting purposes. 

The "magic" is in the use of the Description field for the Residence Fact. The Unified ED Finder Tools on Steve Morse's website cause me to change, a little bit, as to what was in that field. Two things were needed. Street Address and Enumeration District Information.

I had, for the most part, the Street information, or at least as much as was provided from the 1930 Census Record. Since the key for sorting of the report, I chose ED information followed by the more detail or street information.

Enumeration District 22 - 145 Lenape Road

As the example. So all of my 1930 Residence Facts are now in that format. Remember, at this point, I am trying to have a tool to get from the 1930 Census ED numbers to the 1940 ED numbers. So working with everyone that I have found 1930 Census Records, I created a Custom Report.

The first step is to go to the Publish Workspace, Person Collection, and select Custom Report.

Who do I want in this report. Initially, BEFORE we have Indexing available to use on ANY online repository, I will use the Selected Individual option, and Filtering IN Everyone who has the Residence YEAR of 1930. Step by step on how to do this are on this blog.

Filter IN, Selected the Residence Fact, the Date was the default field, and Equals 1930.

As I edited the Residence Fact to my new / updated format, I made sure that the 1930 Residence Fact was the Preferred Fact.

So, what Information to I want in the Report. Birth Marriage Death Facts, along with the Name are selected, in the Items to Include menu. I selected Preferred Only for all of the Facts. Its the basic information so that I can look at a 1940 Census Record to see if I have "the right person".

The trick her is the Sorting of the Report. I wanted the 1930 Households to be listed together AND if I have multiple Household in the 1930 census in the same Enumeration District, I wanted them together. Yes, the lines may change, but I won't know that, until I run the 1930 to 1940 tool.

This is done by putting a Check mark in the Preferred Only, on the right. Moving the Residence FACT to the top of the list, then using the Sort of Place, then Description.

This will group the Places together (townships or towns), then the Enumeration Districts.

Here is one Enumeration District. In this example, there is only one household, but these are the folks that were in that household in 1930.

I then will take this information and mark up this copy of the report with the 1940 Enumeration District number.

In most cases, I ended up with only having ONE ED roll of images to look through.

You can get directly to that ED's images from the Steve Morse's website, or to any other Census Image provider, just look for the new ED record or series of pages to look at.

I have blogged about the information gathered, and when the 1940 Census Record is added to the Residence Fact, I make the 1940 Census as the New Preferred Residence Fact.

Right there on the Person View, is a clear picture of where this person lived, Location of Family Number and Enumeration District for future use.

Bonus Census or Residence Fact, comes with the 1940 Census Record. Where were you in 1935. This example shows that the Family did not move. But looking a little closer, there was a family member missing in the 1940 Census that was present in the 1930 Census.

It may take some time to find where the person went, but that person will wait until the indexs for the 1940 census are available.

I wanted it to be clear what and where the 1935 Residence Fact came from. If the 1940 Census said R, or Same House, or Same Place in column 17, I will record that. In this example it say "Same House". The 1935 date was entered, the Place was the SAME Place Name as the 1940 Census, and I used the same wording that is in column 17. "Same House". In the 1940 Census, it was ED 92, Family 73. This is a Family Number and not an address. The Citation is the Same Citation as all of the other Facts captured by the Census itself.

One change that I am making as the 1940 data is entered, is that I will use ED rather then Enumeration District. This is what was on the Census Record.

The nice thing now is, the file will be ready for the 1950 Census release in 10 years.

As I have heard a number of times, this is the low lying fruit to be picked. I can do this while the indexing is done. AND I am also doing indexing to help us move it along. I have been pretty good at getting at least 2 batches done a day.
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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

1940 Census - Residence Fact Payoff

During this 1940 Preparation project, at this point, it was certainly worth the time and effort to use the fields to MY advantage.

I have mentioned before, that I use the Residence Fact to reflect where a person lived, based on a Census Record.

I have the Residence Fact to include, Date, Place, and Description. The Date and place is straight forward. But I used the Description field, for each census record to reflect Enumeration District and the Family Number or House Number and Street address, where available.

Are you ready for the 1940 Census - A Test

The only difference from that post was that I had the Residence Pace Fact first and then sorted by the description field. This gave me a list of people, by Place, then ED and Address grouped together. That gave me my list of who I can expect to find in an ED, while scrolling through the images.

I can tell you, that it has been successful, and still have some work to do.

Below in an example of how the People Workspace, Person View looks like in the Residence Fact area;

I mark the most recent Residence (based on a Census Record) as the Preferred fact. I was able to find this person, based on the data in the 1930 Census, just be looking at the line in my report, going to the Steve Morse's website, using the information in the Description field and was taken to the 1940 ED images.

Also note, how I chose to enter the data from the 1940 census about the residence in 1935. This example said, Same House. I then entered the 1940 address.

If that field shows "R", followed by County and State, that will be reflected in the Place field, with Same Place in the Description.

This process had actually allowed me to pick up some family that I haven't found before. Scrolling through the images, rather then doing a search, has been very, very helpful.

I am looking at this period of time, without an index, to find some of those 'missing folk' in my file.


________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

1940 Census - Conflicting Information

I wonder if anyone else has found conflicting information in the 1940 Census. Based on Dear MYRTLE's Webinar last night, many of us have. A number of presenters shared their experience. A note about that webinar, it was live, not scripted, but several presenters had similar experience.

#1940Census: And our guests tonight are...

But I digress ....

I search for and found my maternal grandfather. I had expected to find my maternal grandmother and an aunt. She was 15 and was in High School. That was confirmed with a phone call after my finding.

But, here is what I found:

This is my mother's name, listed has my grandfather's wife, aged 45. Hmmm, my mother was only 24 at the time.

My aunt is not listed there and the informant was my grandfather.

I did find my mother listed with my dad, just in town from my grandparents:

This was actually news to me, but it made some sense. Again, confirmed by my aunt.

My mother listed correctly here. Could she have been in two places in the same Census, yes, as there was several days difference in the date the census was taken.

The issue, how to handle this conflicting information.

I chose to enter the information, but to use the Name, FACT Notes to document the conflict.

I entered the 'wrong' name on my Grandmother's record, selected the Name, Note tab on the right, and made a note that the Census was incorrect. I made a similar Name Fact Note on her record.

________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

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.

________________________________________________________________  

Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington