Ancestry.com 1940 US Federal Census

[Miss Marty]

Ancestry.com is currently in the process of uploading all 3.8 million
1940 US Federal Census images, search free now through April 10.

 

[nkldavy]

Have Been Using It The Past Several Days ...

... and have found some info (including pictures) I was searching for before in their Library Edition. My understanding is that the Library Edition doesn't include family info that other individuals have posted on the site. Can anyone confirm this, or is there a porthole into what others have posted from the Library Edition?

Thanks for any help.

Uncle Davey

 

[PStreet1]

You can go to Ancestry.com free on your own. It's much harder to use if you aren't paying them, but you can see what others have posted. I'm surprised about the Library service; I would have thought it was the same.

Ancestry also has a free trial (of 2 weeks I think). You could try it for 2 weeks; you can find out a lot in that period of time.

 

[DaveNV]

I find Ancestry.com generally useful, but things others put there need to be taken with a HUGE grain of salt. You can't take everything as being totally accurate.

I have my family tree back to my g-g-grandparents all the way around. I have birth, marriage, and death records on many items to support my tree. On Ancestry.com I find numerous careless or outright wrong errors, that could lead to all sorts of far-reaching errors. A misread document due to someone's sloppy handwriting can result in incorrect connections being made.

Case in point: My Mother's maiden name starts with the letters "Pu." Someone, somewhere, misread it as "Ri." (Try writing those letters as a capital P, lowercase u, and then capital R and lowercase i, and it's easy to see how it could get messed up.) But then they put her misspelled last name into a published family tree book, which went genealogically "viral." I see her mentioned all over the place with the wrong name. And there's no way to correct it.

So as I was entering my family tree data on Ancestry.com, and enter my father's name, it wants to connect me with family trees with him marrying the wrong woman. (They later divorced, so I guess maybe it was fortuitious... LOL!)

My issue with that is if there are facts that I KNOW are wrong, how can I trust what I see that I may NOT know about?

Dave

 

[PStreet1]

I agree, BMWMan. There is a link in my family tree that is widely touted--and it's 100% WRONG. I have tried sending emails to some of the people who have the wrong connections made, and to say that they are not pleased to see proof that they are wrong would be an understatement. One woman (with a totally different family she has linked to the one I have) said "Oh, but I've become so fond of them." And she STILL has it posted that way even though I know I gave her irrefutable proof that she is wrong.

Still, even acknowledging that, sometimes a good lead is picked up--and occasionally, I find someone who is as demanding as I am interms of proof, or (heaven forbid that such a person should exist) even more demanding.

 

[Miss Marty]

Your Guide to Finding Ancestors in 1940 Census Images

There are several ways to search...

Standard Browse (by township)
Comprehensive listing includes all census locations;
best for finding districts in low-population, rural locations.

State

Populated Place

Enumeration District

Already know the cross streets?
Narrow down the potential district quickly with this browsing method.
Powered by the One-Step work of Stephen Morse & Joel Weintraub

Already know the district from 1930?
Converts 1930 census district numbers to 1940 numbers.
Powered by the One-Step work of Stephen Morse & Joel Weintraub

 

[nkldavy]

Thanks For The Input

The reason I am trying to find out more is to actually visit face-to-face with possible distant relatives so that we can verify what we have before we take it to be correct. I have confirmed a number of issues by visiting the Historical Society of Hunderton county in Flemmingotn, NJ. Working my way down to hopefully get together with someone who is a really a third cousin of mine.

Uncle Davey