Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog: 1940 Census

Showing posts with label 1940 Census. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Those Places Thursday - Then and Now

My father, Jan Iverson, was born in Los Angeles, California in 1936. This is a picture of his first home. It was built in the 1930’s. His family lived there until 1946. I shared this picture, as well as the I shared this picture, as well as the 1940 U.S. Census page that listed my dad and his family, in my post I Found Clark Gable's Mechanic in the 1940 Census!

Well, I just found another picture of my dad’s first home that I didn’t know I had! This photo was taken in June 2004. What a difference a few decades make, huh? And what’s even more special is that my dad, who passed away in 2009, is standing in front of his old home. Definitely a special find for me!

Thanks for reading!

Monday, April 30, 2012

1940 Census Indexing Fun

Are you tired of doing the same old thing? Are you wondering what you can do to add a little fun and excitement in your life? Well, I’ve got the answer for you! It’s the latest and greatest pastime of the season! What am I talking about? Indexing the 1940 Census, that’s what! You haven’t tried it yet?? You didn’t know about it? Oh, have I got the website for you! Check it out here - The 1940 Census. It will help you get started on all the fun!

You say you're already an Indexer and/or Arbitrator, but didn't know where to get help and instructions? You say you need some help to sharpen your 1940 Census indexing and arbitrating skills? You say you’d like to take part in a webinar or watch some training videos? Well, I can help you out with this too! Just click on the links below to start sharpening your skills.

Well, that’s all there is to it! Have a great time helping out with this very important project. And thank you!!

Disclaimer: As part of the1940census.com ambassador program this blog post enters me into a drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card.

Thanks for reading!

Monday, April 23, 2012

1940 Census Finds – Carl and Hilda Gillberg

I wanted to find my paternal great-grandparents, Carl Albert and Hilda Maria Gillberg in the 1940 census. Carl and Hilda were the parents of my grandmother, Ingrid Anna Gillberg. Well, I am happy to say that I was able to find Carl and Hilda in the 1940 census! Here’s the process I went through to find them:

I knew they were in Los Angeles, California in 1930. Here they are in the 1930 census.¹

You may remember from my previous post Wedding Wednesday - Arthur Harry Iverson and Ingrid Anna Gillberg, that Arthur and Ingrid were married at the home of Ingrid’s parents in Ely, Nevada in 1931. So I did a search in the 1940 census for Nevada (yep, that state is now searchable), in case they were still there in 1940. No luck! Okay, now what?

I looked more closely at what information I had for Carl and Hilda and what else I could find on them from Ancestry.com and voila! Here were clues I could use! Carl and Hilda both immigrated to the U.S. from Sweden. They both had Declarations of Intention from 1939 and those papers had an address on them! Hurray! I also found a U.S. Naturalization Record Index Record for Hilda from 1942 and that had an address on it as well! The addresses from the 1939 and 1942 documents were different. Well, now I had something to go on! So, it’s off to SteveMorse.org I went in hopes of finding them in the 1940 census!

I didn’t find them in the first couple of Enumeration Districts I tried. (Operator error – apparently I hadn’t entered the correct cross streets…silly me.) I decided to keep on looking and after entering the correct cross streets…Eureka!…Here they were at the address they listed in their Declaration of Intention documents in 1939! Persistence paid off! So, here are my great-grandparents, Carl and Hilda, in the 1940 Census.²

Because the above image of the 1940 census is so small, I decided to split it in half. Hopefully this makes it easier to read.

It’s really amazing what the 1940 census can tell us about the kinds of lives our ancestors were living at that time. It was kind of sad to see that my Great-Grandpa Carl was working as a vegetable peddler from a private truck. Of course, this was during the Great Depression. The census states that Carl was engaged in Public Emergency Work, and was seeking employment at the time. In Sweden he worked as a tinsmith, according to a passenger list and subsequently he worked as a baker and laborer here in the U.S. according to several census records and my own Grandmother Ingrid's personal history. I really appreciate the sacrifices my ancestors made to come here to the U.S.!

Thanks for reading!

1 Year: 1930; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: 145; Page: 8A; Lines 22 and 23; Enumeration District: 332; Image: 800.0; FHL microfilm: 2339880. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. ^↩
2 Year: 1940; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T627_411; Page: 9A; Lines 18 and 19; Enumeration District: 60-895. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.^↩

Friday, April 20, 2012

Are We There Yet…Are We…Are We…Huh?

Unfortunately the answer to the question above is no (sigh). But we are making great progress! What am I talking about? Why, Indexing the 1940 Census, of course.

Last week a former student from my family history class asked me when we would be able to search the 1940 Census (and no, he did not ask in a whiny little kid voice like in my blog post title). I, of course, couldn’t give him a definitive answer. It all depends on when the indexing gets finished. (Insert shameless 1940 Census Indexing plug here). I did mention some ways he could search for the people he was looking for in the meantime. There’s the awesome website SteveMorse.org (thank you Steve Morse!). But to use this website we need to have an idea of where our ancestors were in 1940. So my student could check the 1930 Census (maybe his ancestors still lived at the same address in 1940?), and he could also look at WW2 Draft Registration Cards for the address listed there. Maybe his ancestors lived at that address in 1940. Another idea is to look through old photos too. I lucked out and was able to find my dad with his parents and siblings in the 1940 Census because I have an old photo with the address of their first house on it.

If you’d like to check out my blog post about this find, here’s the link:

I Found Clark Gable's Mechanic in the 1940 Census!

There are probably lots of other useful resources out there to help us find our ancestors in the 1940 Census while we wait for it to be searchable.

Would anyone like to share their success stories and how they were able to find their ancestors in the 1940 Census? If so, please leave a comment. If you've already blogged about your successes please leave a link to your blog.

Okay, here comes the Indexing Plug—If you haven’t signed up yet to help us index, please sign up. We need you. Besides, it’s fun and rewarding too! And it’s a great way to give back.

Oh, and a big Thank You to all you indexers and arbitrators out there!! Keep up the great work! You guys are awesome!

The FamilySearch Blog has an update on our progress as of April 20, 2012. Here's the link:

1940 Census Indexing Report

If you want to see the state-by-state progress of the 1940 Census Indexing Project, here's a link:

1940 US Census State-by-State Indexing Progress

Thanks for reading!

Jana

Friday, April 13, 2012

I Found Clark Gable’s Mechanic in the 1940 Census!

There he is on line 64 with his family—Arthur Iverson, my grandfather! According to my grandmother Ingrid Gilberg Iverson, Arthur’s wife, when Clark Gable brought his car to the garage where my grandfather worked, Clark preferred Arthur to be the one to work on his car. Sometimes Clark would even stay and watch my grandfather work on his car. I also heard that Clark Gable seemed to be a very nice, genuine person.

Of course, I'm not claiming that my grandfather was the only mechanic Clark Gable used to work on his cars. But it is really cool to hear that my grandfather was one of his mechanics. And one that he preferred at the garage where Grandpa Arthur worked.

In the 1940 Census, Arthur is listed with his wife Ingrid and their three children. I've blurred the name and information for the youngest child on this census for privacy reasons. Jan, the middle child is my father. Arthur and his family lived at 6058 N. Bellingham Avenue in North Hollywood at the time of this census.

Here’s a picture of their house.

It’s so awesome that I had this picture of my dad’s first house and that it had the actual address listed too. Because I had the address of the house, I was able to locate my dad in the 1940 census. I used the website Stevemorse.org to find the correct enumeration district I needed so I could locate my dad and his family in the census. Thank you Steve Morse!

It’s especially neat to see this census because just two years after it was taken, my grandfather, Arthur Iverson, passed away. To see him in a census with his family is really cool.

Here’s a picture of my grandfather, Arthur Harry Iverson.

Year: 1940; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T627_375; Page: 5B; Line 64; Enumeration District: 60-41. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog