Society General Meeting

Saturday, February 11, 2012, 2:00 p.m.

Tyler Public Library—Taylor Auditorium

Speaker: Lisa McKinney

Program: "It's Never Too Early to Start Preparing for the Release of the 1940 Census"

For many genealogists, the countdown to access the 1940 Census release started months ago, including how different it is going to be compared to census enumerations of the past...and how challenging the format will be. Rumors have been flying.

To meet all the challenges, June Everheart, program chairman, sought out Lisa McKinney to speak to us this month to answer our questions and allay some of our worst fears. Lisa will explain why and how you will need to prepare for your research when the big day arrives. For one thing, she will tell you about the official date of release on Monday, April 2, 2012 at the National Archives. Lisa will also summarize some interesting facts as to how this Sixteenth Enumeration of the United States differs from the one taken a decade prior.

Standardized questions were provided by the Bureau of the Census to all Enumerators, just as in previous years. The standard Population Schedule had 34 questions and more than a dozen Supplemental Questions asked only for those persons who were enumerated on specified lines. This means ensured a random nature in obtaining supplemental questions.

At a time when the domestic letter rate was just 3-cents per ounce, and the American Flag for four decades had displayed 48 stars—one for each state—and Pearl Harbor had yet to take place, no one dreamed that one day the census records of 1940 would be released “digitally.”

Lisa McKinney, a former newspaper reporter and business editor, now does freelance writing and editing as well as genealogy research for clients. She currently lives in East Texas and volunteers in the Van Zandt County Genealogy Library in Canton. She won a 1st place writing award from Dallas Genealogical Society for “Coming to Understand Sources”, and developed a program she also presented to ETGS last October.

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