Well, the 1940 census opened today. I wasn’t ever able to get anywhere on the 1940census.arhcives.gov site, so this evening I tried seeing what I could find on Ancestry.com. They had a dozen states or so up tonight, so I decided locate my great-uncle, Grover Cornett, and his family in the Wilson’s Creek area of Grayson County, Virginia. Although I didn’t have an address, I did know that they live in Wilson’s Creek, and that narrowed the search sufficiently to allow me to look at just a few enumeration districts. I found them on the third one I looked at!
Following is a screen shot of the page:
One surprize was that my cousin, eighteen year old Grover Cornett Junior (June), was a truck driver with the CCC’s in 1940. That’s something I didn’t know.
I tried 3 times to locate my father, Orville V. Gilbert in 1940 Keokuk, Lee Co., Iowa. Was not listed, also tried my own, and no success. I know street, and other material is definite, but nothing there, just addd more data. I had birth, place etc. and still nothing. Do Not like new format for finding info. Had down hundred of lookups on Ancestry.com and little to no troulbe- but this one is lousy.
Joan Nix
I have tried to use the 1940 Fed. census system, with No luck.
Tried locating myself and father in Keokuk, Lee Co., Iowa- they are not listed.
I gave birth date for myself, Eva Joan Gilbert, birth date & place, same for my father, Orville V. Gilbert. Know the street etc, and still no record- says to add more data. Have done hundreds before on other years, and it worked.
Joan (Gilbert) Nix of PA.
Please be aware that very few of the new census images have been indexed yet…even on Ancestry.com.
In most cases, you have to find the Enumeration District (ED) number and then browse through the pages. A great website available to help you find the ED# is stevenmorse.org. Scroll down to the census area. There is a tutorial to help you. Also, check out http://rootsmagic.com/Webinars/1940Census/ for 5 free webinars about the 1940 census. Good info but you need to watch all the videos. You can download and/or watch online.
Kaye from Oregon