A 1940 Census Search Status Update

     The census release got off to a rocky start on Monday, but by Tuesday everything was running smoothly. The National Archive's website was running perfectly for me while Ancestry.com and FamilySearch were steadily adding images. Today, MyHeritage became the first commercial site to have all images online.

     So, how am I doing? Here's a list of my direct line ancestors. I had EDs picked out for all of them and have conducted searches for them.

Found	Relationship		Missing	Relationship
Betty Huyler	Grandmother		Roy Albea	Grandfather
Ruby Huyler Whitfield	Great-Grandmother		Vernon & Auline Albea	Great-Grandparents
Sarah Britt	Grandmother		Vary "Mack" Huyler	Great-Grandfather
Nathan Britt	Great-Grandfather		Nina Albea	2xG Grandmother
Thomas Craft	Grandfather		John & Ida Huyler	2xG Grandparents
BE & Ruth Craft	Great-Grandparents		Ledora Barfield Britt	Great-Grandmother
Stephen T Boatright	3xG Grandfather		Frances Boatright Barfield	2xG Grandmother
William D Witt	2xG Grandfather		Effie Craft	2xG Grandmother
			Leila Evans	2xG Grandmother
			Leverett & Louise Waters	2xG Grandmother

    When I look at this list, something stands out: for the most part the left hand side are farmers and the right hand side are mill workers or widows. Mill workers moved a lot. A lot. Looking at city directories, they are almost never in the same place two years in a row. And the widows have possibly moved in with one of their children, leaving the homes they had with their husband.

     I'm going to keep looking for my missing ancestors, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to find them without an index.  As far as index completion is concerned, I think I've heard that one might be completed as soon as 6 months.  I'm going to have to do my part and do some more indexing with FamilySearch. I've done two pages so far and have found it exceedingly easy. Hopefully they'll start Georgia and South Carolina soon!