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Ancestry.co.uk says
We‘re celebrating our American cousins for the next nine days. To mark our launch of the page images from the 1940 US census, we‘ve made all our American records covering the ‘1940 era’ completely FREE!*
From 2nd-10th April, anyone can search and view over 750 million records from 139 different collections. These include birth, marriage and death records, passenger lists, military records and even the entire 1930 U.S. Census!
*The collections will be available to search for free on 00.01 BST on 02 April 2012 until 11.59 BST 10 April 2012. To view these records you will need to register for free with Ancestry.co.uk with your name and email address.
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Just to point out, the 1940 census isn't indexed/transcribed. You'd have to know where your relatives were living, or at least have an idea. Then you have to plough through the images for the enumeration districts.
Finding them on the 1930 census or the US City directories can help.
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Your very own Genes ReUnited has a sister site covering US census records
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-16858504
the site is at
http://www.censusrecords.com/
index and images free to 1840
index (very good) free anytime
registration is free
The site is very quick. If you need the images you can buy them at a reasonable fee on an ad hoc basis.
recommended
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Thanks Rollo - I didn't know abt that
Rollo's not quite right - the 1790-1840 images are not free.
Here's an 1810 look up - not one of my rellies (so far as I know). I think my dad's cousin Joseph was the first of my Massie's to cross over and that was 100 y later.
1810 US Census Transcription
First Name - Charles
Last Name - Massie
Census Year - 1810
State - Virginia
County - Goochland
City/Township - Goochland
Now you can also get a transcription from FS via:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1®ion=UNITED_STATES
name: Charles Massie
event place: Goochland, Goochland, Virginia
page number: 430
line number: 210
nara publication number: M252
nara roll number: 68
film number: 0181428
digital folder number: 004433404
image number: 00825
However, most of us plebs can't get the image there - it's available on Ancestry.
Some years, there is an image for free. Of relevance to the thread, they started putting up 1940 images yesterday.
Only 15 states are represented so far (of 48 states + 6 territories) - namely
AL, CA, CO, DE, FL, KS, LA, MN, MS, NH, OK, OR, PA, TX, VA
Incidentally, in the past FS have put up free images, then later removed them - the Canadian 1916 prairie census is one case I know of.
Actually, the FS 1810 has sufficient info to get hold of a free image. I start with:
http://archive.org/details/1810_census
then click on Virginia - here I'm told which NARA reel # I need.
(Some years one has to match the last 3 digits of the FHL film # with the last 3 digits of the reel #)
I click on the "read online" link and go to:
http://archive.org/stream/populationschedu0068unix#page/n0/mode/2up
Next I guess a page # (obviously 825 is a likely guess) and change the URL (both page # & 2up) to
http://archive.org/stream/populationschedu0068unix#page/n825/mode/1up
I don't see my Chas there, so I pick a name on there, preferably one that won't get mistranscibed and isn't John Smith:
name: Isaac W Pleasants
event place: Goochland, Goochland, Virginia
page number: 432
line number: 235
nara publication number: M252
nara roll number: 68
film number: 0181428
digital folder number: 004433404
image number: 00828
Clearly, what I want is:
http://archive.org/stream/populationschedu0068unix#page/n822/mode/1up
I've tried saving at various magnifications, and I get different file sizes downloaded, so I recommend magnifying 4 clicks, then saving image.
One final point - it looks to me like the FS transcriptions are incomplete.
Here's the figures from the US Bureau of the Census:
Popn in millions (rounded down) 1850-23, 1860-31, 1870-38, 1880-50, 1890-62, 1900-75, 1910-91, 1920-105, 1930-122, 1940-131.
FS don't have these many records indexed.
I've spot checked a few states on Ancestry, and Ancestry has always had more records than the US B of C shows for the state - presumably user corrections are double counted.
(The figures thru 1840, and 1890, obviously can't be checked this way.)
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I should have said what the image's columns were - anyone can get the following from the blurb under Ancestry's 1810 search screen:
Enumerators of the 1810 census were asked to include the following categories in the census: name of head of household; number of free white males and females in age categories: 0 to 10, 10 to 16, 16 to 26, 26 to 45, 45 and older; number of other free persons except Indians not taxed; number of slaves; and town or district and county of residence. The categories allowed Congress to determine persons residing in the United States for collection of taxes and the appropriation of seats in the House of Representatives. Most entries are arranged in the order of visitation, but some have been rearranged to appear in alphabetical order by initial letter of the surname. Manufacturing schedules are scattered among the 1810 population schedules.
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Sorry about that, the beta seems to be over. The transcriptions are free anyway and ez to find as the index system is excellent. I am told they worked very hard on it.
I have endless US / Canada relatives and bit the bullet on Ay WW ages ago, it is fascinating comparing the census to old letters and documents, photos.
For those who haven't tried the US census image tends to tell one more about the life of the person than the UK version and it is worth the effort to get hold of the images one way or another.
If you google around they tend to be available for free here and there. Here is an example - not pirate, 100% kosher.
http://archive.org/details/us_census
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Rollo - although I've obviously had only limited exposure to the site you cite, I did notice look ups did seem very fast.
Since Rollo has brought up Canadian censuses, the LAC portal lists most free (and charged) sites:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-911.009-e.html
Not listed are 2 recently posted collections at
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1®ion=CANADA
Namely:
Canada, Lower Canada Census, 1831 91,908 18 Feb 2012
Canada, Lower Canada Census, 1842 46,467 16 Feb 2012
Also, for Newfoundland, try:
http://ngb.chebucto.org/
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FS updated today - now have online images for:
AL, CA, CO, DE, FL, IL, IN, KS, LA, MN, MS, MO, NC, NH, NY, OK, OR, PA, TX, UT, VA.
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