1940 U.S. Census To Be Released Free On MyHeritage
MyHeritage, a popular family network on the web, recently announced it will be offering the images and a searchable name index of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census completely free of charge, starting April 2 2012. Using sophisticated technology that automatically matches names, facts and relationships in the census to family tree data, MyHeritage will provide an easy and exciting way for families to explore their American heritage. Supporting 38 languages, MyHeritage will enable family history lovers not only in the US, but all over the world, to discover more about the lives of their American relatives during this transformative period in history.
More than 3.8 million images and 132 million records of the 1940 U.S. Census will be made available on www.myheritage.com/1940census where they will be searchable by multiple criteria on MyHeritage SuperSearch. MyHeritage will also provide the 1940 U.S. Census for free on the other leading family history sites it owns at www.worldvitalrecords.com/
As the largest and most recent U.S. census to be made publicly available, the 1940 Census opens a window into the lives of the generation that survived the Great Depression and lived through the Second World War, described as the Greatest Generation. Family historians will be able to use the 1940 Census to learn more about their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and other close relatives.
As an independent provider of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census, MyHeritage will be releasing its own version of the index in high transcription quality, adding value by publishing data from states not yet available elsewhere. To facilitate discoveries in the easiest and quickest way, MyHeritage will automatically match the 1940 Census records as they are being added, with the millions of family trees built by users on MyHeritage, notifying them about relevant results and eliminating the need for time-consuming and repeated manual searches. This is especially helpful given that the 1940 Census records will be added gradually, so users won’t need to revisit the census and search again as new content is added and can look forward to an ongoing stream of effortless discoveries, for free.
The images of the 1940 U.S. Census will be released by the National Archives and Records Administration on April 2, 2012, following a 72 year privacy protection period. MyHeritage will then make all images immediately available to the public and begin the gradual process of transcribing them and making the index searchable, pledging a 98% or higher degree of accuracy.
Census information includes detailed family information, such as names, ages, addresses, occupation, race, marital status, birthplace, citizenship, home ownership and the relation of each person in the household. Several new and interesting questions appear in the 1940 U.S. Census for the first time identifying where the individual was living five years before (in 1935), information about wages and also educational attainment. Five percent of the population was asked supplementary questions including birthplace of parents, native language, usual occupation, and for women only – whether they’d been married more than once, how old they were when they were first married and the number of children they gave birth to.
With more than 62 million registered users, 22 million family trees and close to 1 billion profiles, MyHeritage has become the trusted home on the web for families wishing to explore their family history, share memories and stay connected. MyHeritage made a significant move into the historical content market in November 2011 with the acquisition of FamilyLink Inc. in Provo, Utah, obtaining billions of historical records through its website WorldVitalRecords.com. These records together with the family trees form the basis of MyHeritage SuperSearch, on which the 1940 Census will be added.
t
Jess Loren is an energetic entrepreneur and start-up savant who specializes in the team-based execution of innovative ideas. The co-founder of Chicago social media marketing and business technology solutions company Kambio Group & tech/pop culture blog SocialTechPop, Jess is not only a fluent expert in the present state of social media, but a visionary with an eye toward the future. In her projects, Jess combines the effects of cutting-edge technology with the connectivity of social media, and examines how they play a role in determining the next big thing. Jess has contributed across the industry, working with everyone from Fortune 500 companies to a company that hosts the “largest bar crawl in America.” Follow Jess on Twitter @chitownjess