1940--A Beautiful Census

I began indexing about a month before the 1940 census was released.  So, I was practiced and warmed up for the release date!

I began by indexing Colorado, and the pages were beautiful!

Sounds a little crazy, but if you have ever gotten so close to a record you've bumped your nose, only hoping that the closer you got the clearer the record got, then, and only then can you appreciate the beauty of a crisp clean record!

Since the Colorado sheets, I have come across a few pages that were a little fuzzy, and some with misspelled names, places, or ink blotches, but overall the 1940 is beautiful!

As I thought about 1940, I realized that the United States overall was better educated, census takers included!  In addition, immigrants had been here for a longer period of time so their accents were clearer to understand!

Some of the fun things on the 1940 census:
+if you were absent, "ab" was listed next to your name.
+you were required to state where you lived in 1935
+occupation & industry was listed

Get the latest status on image availability by state here.

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