If you?re an Ancestry.com subscriber with one or more?family trees posted on the site, you?ve probably been receiving ?record hints? about family members found in?the 1940 U.S.?Census.? An excellent?article about the 1940 census appears?in NGS Magazine (Volume 38, Number 2, April-June 2012), published by the National Genealogical Society.
The article, ?The 1940 federal census?, was written by Constance Potter and Diane Petro. End notes indicate their information was drawn from several government sources, such as the Bureau of the Census and http://1940census,archives.gov. I encourage you to find a copy of the magazine?and read?the article?in its entirety. Following are excerpts:
As with every census, the 1940 census shows the social, political, and economic issues of the previous decade.? This census reflects the Great Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt?s New Deal recovery programs of the 1930s?
The enumeration districts are smaller in the 1940 census; it appears that the average enumeration district is between fifty and sixty pages. There can be up to three sets of pages for each enumeration district: page 1A and pages following; page 61A and pages following; and page 81A and pages following. Page 1A and the following pages list the people at home the day of the census; for people not at home the day of the census, but enumerated on a later date, the enumerator listed them starting on page 61A. Transients ? such as people living in trailer parks, hotels or flop houses ? are listed beginning on page 81A. Not all enumeration districts have pages 61A or 81A or both.
After the census got to Washington, the staff stamped the pages for each county consecutively starting with 1. Because it can appear that pages were skipped, the stamped pages let you know that no pages are missing.
Column 7: Identification of Persons Furnishing Information?
The instructions to the enumerator asked the census taker to mark with a circled X the person in each home who answered the questions. Often, the wife gave the information. If the information came from a person who was not a member of the household, the enumerator was to ?write the name of this person in left-hand margin??
Column 14: Education ? Highest Grade of School Completed?
Although questions about education were asked in earlier censuses, this is the first time the census asked for the highest grade of school completed. At that time, many peopled graduated from high school in the eleventh grade.
Column 16: Citizenship?of the Foreign Born??
Beginning with the 1900 census, people were asked if they were naturalized, had filed their papers, or were aliens. In 1940, the Census Bureau added the category ?American Citizen Born Abroad,? which covered people born abroad or at sea?
Columns 17-20: In What Place Did This Person Live on 1 April 1935?
The Census Bureau, interested in internal migration, asked everyone where he or she lived on 1 April 1935?If a person had lived in a different place, the enumerator entered the city or town, county, and state. If the person lived in the same place, but a different house, the enumerator entered ?Same place? and if the person lived in the same house, the enumerator wrote ?Same house.?
Columns 21-33: Employment Status
The schedule asked thirteen questions about the employment status of people 14 years old and older. Except for columns 27 and 31, the answers apply to the week of 24-30 March, the week before the census. Included in the new questions was ?Amount of money, wages, or salary received (including commissions)? (column 32). Many people, including farmers and restaurant and store owners have a 0 in that column. That is because these people were not working for wages or a salary, but were self-employed.
Column 22: Public Emergency Work
The census asked if anyone in the household during the week of 24-30 March 1940, was at work on, or assigned to, public emergency work projects conducted by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the National Youth Administration (NYA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) or state or local work relief agencies. The WPA, established 6 May 1935, developed programs to move unemployed workers from relief to jobs?The NYA, established under the WPA, gave part-time jobs to high school and college students to earn money to continue their education.
The CCC, created 31 March 1933, employed men aged 18-25 in conservation work in the national parks and forests?
Columns 35-50: Questions on the Supplemental Schedules
At the bottom of each schedule, a supplementary schedule asked additinoal questions of 5 percent of the population, or two people on preselected lines. These supplemental questions include the birthplace of the respondent?s parents, military service, and if a person had deductions from Social Security or Railroad Retirement taken from wages.
Starting with the 1880 census, people were asked not only where they were born but also the birthplace of their father and mother. In the 1940 census, this question was moved to the supplemental schedule?
The answers to the new questions ? and the old ? will tell us, in detail, what the United States looked like on April 1, 1940, and what issues were most relevant to Americans after a decade of economic depression. As with all censuses, the answers to these questions may lead to different avenues of research.
Thanks to NGS Magazine and authors Constance Potter and Diane Petro.
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Source: http://blog.irishgenealogical.org/?p=626
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