After 72 years, the 1940 Census has been released!  Additionally, this year marks the first time ever that the census records will not be available on microfilm.

The National Archives released a free, digital, non-indexed version to researchers on Monday, but very few people were actually able to access any files that day.  The National Archives were overwhelmed with the amount of requests to their website which quickly bogged down their system.  But since then, genealogists everywhere have been able to take a look at their ancestors (or themselves) as recorded 72 years ago, although the process does involve scanning through many pages of names.

Indexing will be done as soon as possible, but it is not easy to determine when the process will be complete.  The National Archives along with FamilySearch.org and FindMyPast.com are coordinating volunteers for this project.

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Written by Beth

Beth is a Librarian at the Gaines Township branch of KDL. She really loves reading, especially all the wonderful teen books, but also enjoys genealogy and crafts!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2012 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Research & Computer Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.