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A link to the past: Local residents help FamilySearch digitize 1940 census data
By Anthony Tosie, atosie@starlocalnews.com
On April 2, the U.S. National Archives and Record Administration released the entire 1940 U.S. census to the general public. The release allowed anyone the ability to visit a National Archives facility and view the information on microfilm.
Unfortunately for most people, however, obtaining that information can be a hassle. To locate a specific person surveyed by the census, individuals first have to determine the correct enumeration district -- the geographic area assigned to census takers -- and then scroll through a large amount of microfilm to find the desired record.
FamilySearch, a genealogy organization created by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has eliminated this inconvenience by digitizing records of all 132 million individuals surveyed by the census.
"It could be a difficult process at times, because sometimes the images were hard to read -- especially if the handwriting was really poor," Hixon said. "But [the census takers] did a really good job. When they did the census they didn't think about us typing it out 72 years in the future obviously."
Hixon originally started transcribing data for FamilySearch 2 ½ years ago after attending a meeting at his church, the Frisco-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"I was at a church leadership training meeting; it was an option that was presented to us as a volunteer service, and you could do it from home," Hixon said. "I thought I'd give it a try and found it to be very enjoyable. I ended up doing a lot of names, and about a year or so into it the church asked me to be the local area coordinator."
While FamilySearch had estimated it would take six months to complete the transcription of the entire census, it only took the organization's worldwide group of 150,000 volunteers approximately four months to finish transcribing information for all 132 million individuals surveyed by the 1940 census. The group Hixon was in charge of transcribed data from more than 823,000 those individuals.
Following completion of the project, Hixon decided to search for his own family's history and looked up his father's information.
"After we finished I looked up my dad, who was born in 1939," he said. "I logged on to the FamilySearch site and typed in his birth year, gender, relationship to the head of household, and his first and last name. Within seconds I had results including all the very close matches, and one was an exact match, which was my dad."
Now that the 1940 census project is finished, Hixon's gone back to transcribing other projects for FamilySearch. Currently he's working on transcribing a passenger log for a ship that was traveling from Cuba to the United States in 1927.
"FamilySearch has hundreds of projects in many languages -- if you speak Finnish, they have projects from Finland you can do," Hixon explained. "Because I speak Spanish sometimes I'll do records from Argentina or Puerto Rico for a change of pace. Other projects would include things like World War II draft cards or turn-of-the-century soldiers' pension benefits records from the Civil War."
Anyone can use FamilySearch for free by visiting the organization's website. Hixon hopes people will take advantage of the free service and learn more about their ancestry.
"For any family history or genealogy person, this is a great tool -- to be able to in seconds see your ancestors," he said. "I encourage people to look up their own parents and grandparents. It doesn't take much time and it's free."
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