April 2 marks a much anticipated event for family historians and local history researchers…..the opening of the 1940 United States census!
Census records, taken every ten years by the federal government, are held confidential for seventy two years. The newly released 1940 census is now available in digital format at the National Archives site: http://1940census.archives.gov/. It will be browsable by geographic location, but not searchable by individual names because the Census has not been indexed.
Be patient! Everyone is trying to search at the same time and the response is slow.
To learn more about the Census, check out Cofrin Library’s guide at : http://libguides.uwgb.edu/census.
