The 1940 Census: A Webinar from the Friends of the National Archive Southeast Region

Image used during the webinar

     I just finished watching a webinar about the 1940 Census by the Friends of the National Archives Southeast Region and Constance Potter of the National Archives. This is was a great webinar that covered a lot of information. Here's a breakdown of some of what I came away with, much of which I tweeted during the webinar:

• There will be a new website/landing page for the 1940 census on the NARA website. I'm not sure, but I got the feeling it could be live very soon. There will be a notification when the website is up.
• On top of videos available on YouTube about the 1940 census, NARA will be releasing radio public service announcements called "Uncle Sam Calling." You can already find transcriptions of these at Steve Morse's site [here]. (Not sure if these will be on YouTube or the new 1940 website)
• The 1940 census does not (yet!) have a person index, but is indexed by State, County, Civil District and Enumerated District.
• Aside from the questions that were asked of the population, a number of questions were proposed but not asked. Ex: Do you dye your hair and if so, what color; who was over 6 feet tall; do you own a waffle iron and a bible.
• Those in a jail and penitentiary were not recorded as "inmates," but were recorded by their prison number. This could be very helpful!
• The census requires that the person providing the information for each family be marked with an X. Unfortunately, from what archivists have seen, it seems like this was rarely done. 
• The census asks where each person lived five years ago on 1 Apr 1935. They even note if it's the "same house."
• Military veterans are listed with the war they fought in. 
• If a person is receiving social security benefits this is listed, though social security numbers were not recorded.
• Women were asked about the number of marriages they'd had, when they were married and how many children they had. Stillbirths were not supposed to be counted - but like many other questions this rule wasn't always followed.
• A census of housing and a census of agriculture were taken, but have since been destroyed. Only statistical data remains.
• The Enumeration District Descriptions are available on OPA (Online Public Access: http://www.archives.gov/research/search) and give details about each district, including schools and other institutions included within, as well as streets.  You can see the best way to search for these here: http://www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/start-research.html
• NARA recommends using the 1940 Census tools by Steve Morse to help plan your research ( http://stevemorse.org/census)

     The webinar was apparently extremely popular - more than expected it seems.  A lot of attendees had trouble with sound or even getting into the webinar.  There will be an archived copy available, but only to members of the Friends of the National Archives Southeast Region. This is a $25 a year fee and you can find more information here: http://friendsnas.org/membership.htm.

     Can you believe we're only 83 days away from 1940 census access?

Notes from Ancestry.com Military Webinar

Some notes from the 19 May Military Webinar on Ancestry.com. These are the things that caught my attention about new additions coming soon:

• My sound didn't work the first 15 minutes. It was something wrong on the part of my computer, I think. I restarted the webinar three times and the sound came in.
• Civil War records
- Promised "exciting" collection for the Civil War Anniversary (I missed the date) and they said we "won't be disappointed."
- Are working especially hard on Confederate records from a "huge variety of sources."
• WWI records
- They recognize there are issues with draft cards, including missing and unreadable cards. They are looking into fixing the issues and its just a matter of "ongoing prioritization."
• WWII records
- Again, they recognize issues, which they believe they "should fix fairly quickly."
- "Young men's" draft cards are slowly becoming available, and they will add them as they can
- Will be "hopefully" adding Illinois draft cards this week
• US Navy Cruise Books
- Have a small collection now, but will have a "nice steady flow" added "hopefully at the end of this year."

Ancesty.com's New Search Webinar

Last night, ancestry.com held a webinar for their new search. They announced this webinar back on 18 July. Although skeptical, I signed up. In my opinion, which I commented on the blogged announcement, 

"Not *trying* to be negative here, but my initial thought is: why do I need a webinar to learn how to use a site that I’ve used for 5+ years? Although it’s always nice to learn new search hints, I’m concerned that perhaps this new search requires too much work.

I think the key problem here is that a transition from an old to new search should be relatively seamless - and this change is not.

But, I’ve signed up for the webinar to see what you guys have to say."

After participating in the hourlong webinar last night, I have a few thoughts.

1. This was advertised as for "intermediate and advanced researchers." The actual webinar actually seemed to be geared more toward new researchers or, a least, those who had never used the new search (which based on a poll taken during the webinar was about 40% of participants). The webinar took participants through walkthroughs of the new search and explained such exciting things as how to change the font size (heavy sarcasm). They honestly did not go over anything that anyone might learn from a day or two of exploring.
2. They didn't address any major issues. They noted two "myths" - that they new search and new home page were connected, and that ancestry isn't listening. That's it! They really didn't go much more in depth about the issues raised by their paying customers.
3. During the web walkthrough, when we were shown example searches, the "most relevant" results that Hulet got seemed to be mainly from his own family tree. Then he had 500,000+ results. This is a major concern brought up by researchers that he really didn't address. Just, "ok, change up your search criteria."
4. OK, why should I have to keep changing my search criteria. Why should I have to take out the death date in order to get results from databases that don't include the death date (ie census, births, military, etc). Why can't the search just ignore this data if it doesn't apply to that database? The "old" search didn't have this problem. And, though I submitted this question, it was not answered.
5. And that brings us to the Q&A portion of the webinar. Very weak. Most of the questions were downright easy. Does the new search use soundex, can we still use wildcards, should I put 'born in USA'... The didn't answer any of the in depth questions that have people upset.
6. One question that was asked, and that I think is very telling (going back to points 4 & 5) was when library editions would be able to access the new search. Hulet responded that, because librarians have to field so many questions about ancestry and how to use it, that ancestry wants to wait to roll out to libraries until they have the new search at a "good point." In other words, until people can use the new search successfully. So, why are they pushing the new search on us when it is not at a "good point?" Why do we have to suffer

So, all in all - the webinar was not effective or useful in any way. They had a survey at the end and I pretty much told them that. I also left a comment on their blog that I would love to see an extended Q&A answer report posted on the blog. Maybe then they could answer some more helpful questions.