My first encounter with the 1940 Census on April 2, 2012 was not a very pleasant one. The site that I checked first was "1940 census.archives.gov". The response to my inquiries was very very very slow and when the display finally appeared it was very large writing and did not display the full page. Also there were lots of error messages such as "cannot display page" and "page not available". So after a frustrating hour of attempted inquires I quit for the day.
I decided to check out Ancestry.com on day two. Ancestry only had three states completed for viewing. Even though the states we not the ones I needed, I made a general inquiry in one of them. To my surprise Ancestry displayed a full page. The page was very easy to read and the options to enlarge or shrink and to print worked. Ancestry also informed its users to check back occasionally to see when more states were completed. On a scale of 1 - 10, day two was a 5.
On day three the Images for Texas were available for viewing. My home town is Tomball, Harris, Texas. Tomball is located about 20 miles northwest of Houston Texas. In 1940 there was about 1,000 residents within the city limits of Tomball. There was only one E.D. number for the city. After a few minutes of looking thru the records I found that my mother (Margie Mitchell) was living in the household of her sister (Willie Maurine Mitchell Thomas). Also living in the same household was Ralph Loyal Thomas, Maurine's husband and Zeda Parlee Chamness Mitchell, my grandmother. Day three was a 10!
Way to go Larry. Your patience and get it done attitude will work every time. Thanks for the information you shared with us. I remember a lot of those good folks and relatives like the Klien family. Because they were here in Tomball is the very reason my Dad moved to Tomball.
ReplyDeleteGlad you found success. Do you know about the Steve Morse 1940 census tool? If not let me know and I'll share it with you.
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