1940 U.S. Federal Census

For millions of genealogy and family history enthusiasts in the United States, the release of the 1940 United States Federal Census records on Monday, 2 April 2012, was one of the most exciting genealogical events in a decade. After a 72-year privacy obligation expired, the records were released by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for inspection and research by members of the general public. In anticipation of the historic release, leading genealogy organizations from around the world sought to capitalize on the unprecedented demand for this content by offering a host of products and services.

In what was perhaps one of the best-ever examples of crowdsourcing, more than 160 thousand volunteers signing up to put their specialized skills to work as volunteer indexers. The digital images were available immediately, but without a keyword searchable index, the process for finding your ancestors listed among millions of population schedules was a bit more burdensome than many have become accustomed to in this age of digital genealogy research.

Long before the 2012 public launch of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census, planning and negotiations began to ensure the public could have access to the content in a timely and useful manner, but the question remained how to best respond to the various organizations that expressed interest in partnering with these government entities. In addition to Ancestry.com, the leading commercial provider of online genealogy content, there were other capable providers also wanting to participate in the launch. Most notable was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their popular free genealogy site, FamilySearch.org. The large nonprofit spearheaded the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project, partnering with commercial providers Archives.com (since acquired by Ancestry) and FindMyPast.com, as well as the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

I was pleased to be selected to serve as a national spokesperson for the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project. Having worked with each of the members of the consortium, I was already familiar with their goals for the project. The energy in Washington D.C. on that historic release date was a special moment for those in attendance. The questions and interest from the media, coast-to-coast, was also exciting. I was proud to help bring the discussion of genealogy, and census records in particular, into so many homes on that date. Many of my articles about the 1940 census were featured in print and on leading websites.

As exciting as that historic launch event was, time certainly doesn't stand still. The countdown to the release of the 1950 census was already underway and is now poised to be the next biggest event in the genealogy research world. The April 2022 release will unveil population schedules containing details for more than 150 million Americans living in 48 states and territories.