1940 Census Release Day - Epic Failure or Great Opportunity?

Today has been a lonnnnnnnng day for many of us in the genea-world.  This day, for which we've waited so long, has turned out to be one of waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting for most of us.  What were we waiting for, you may ask?  Well, all though the waiting experience may have differed a bit, the anticipated "prize" for all would have been a page from the 1940 Census, that would allow us to actually begin the search for our families!
Luckily, I've read the 59 posts in my reader prior to typing this, so I'm aware that many folks have already shown screen shots of what we've been looking at all day; therefore, I won't do that.  But, whether it's been a spinning wheel, a black screen that says "loading" (or "preparing image""), or whether after excitedly thinking we've had a breakthrough, just to read, "Sorry, that image is no longer available"; all but a few luckly souls have spent this day WAITING.

But, as this tiresome day progressed, I noticed a few things about myself:  I noticed that I wasn't getting mad.  Actually, I spent most of the day with a smile on my face!  I even thought (initially) that the whole thing was kind of funny!  For the first few hours, I was in constant communication with other researchers, who were going through the same thing as I was.  At noon, I joined the Afrigenas Lunch Bunch Chat.  At 3:00, I was in another chatroom with Steve Morse, Nicka Smith, and other "big-wigs" from the genealogy world.  And, in between all of this, I was getting things done!  You see, I had a plan.  (I pretty much always have a plan.)  I'd expected to have to do some waiting.  I'd figured that not everything would go perfectly smooth with such a highly anticipated release as this, with it taking place at a time when most people would/could be awake and waiting. With today being my first official day of Spring Break, I knew that I didn't want to completely waste the day, and then end up mad about it, so I made a plan!

Is this giving you an anxiety attack? :)

My plan was simply to get other things done if I ended up having to wait.  Those things included dusting, vacuuming, cleaning my kitchen, doing laundry, pulling weeds, paying bills (for my self and for my mother), and making telephone calls.  I got all of those things done, except the laundry!  Not only did I accomplish these things, which resulted in me starting my break with a fresh, clean house; but I also took a one-hour nap in the middle of the day, and went out to get Chick-Fil-a for dinner!


Yummm!

Now, here I am back at the computer, or the "puter", as I like to call it.  As much as I'd hoped that the folks at archives.com had completed the work of "adding additional servers" so that ease of access would be improved, unfortunately, I'm
                                        still
                                          looking
                                                   at

                                                     this                     

      on one computer

and

           this

                                                        on the other.

But, am I upset? Nope!  You know why?  Because if my images had loaded, I certainly wouldn't have taken the time to write this post! 

Now, I'm not one to give up, so I'm sure I'll be trying all night.  But at some point, I'll call it a night, and head to bed.  After all, there's always tomorrow!

                          

                                                                      

See ya tomorrow!

Renate

1940 Census Blogger Ambassador



     In just 23 days, the 1940 Census will be released to the public!  Those of us in the genealogy community have counted down the years, then months, and now days for this event.  I can imagine we'll all get plenty of rest on the on the night of April 1st, so that we can be at the ready at 9:00 a.m. the next morning, when the long awaited documents are released. (Or, on the other hand, some might stay up all night in anticipation!)
     When FamilySearch first announced it's partnership with the National Archives to release the 1940 Census, and open it up to indexers, I signed up right away. I was already a registered indexer for FamilySearch at the time, but this was going to be a special project, which I just had to be a part of.  But now, I've made an even greater commitment to the work that will be involved in bringing easier access to the to the public because a few weeks ago, I signed up to be a 1940 Census "Blogger Ambassador". 
      Being a Blogger Ambassador means that I will write about my experiences using the 1940 Census, and I will share how the it effects my research.  That 's all that's required, and I would have been doing that, anyway, so I figured, "Why not be an ambassador?" :)
     There is so much excitement being generated about this census.  Personally, I'm impressed by the amount of information that the enumerators were required to gather.  Also, I think it's great that we'll get to see who actually provided the information (for the first time), which could help us to infer the probable validity of much of it.  We'll also get information about where families lived 5 years prior to the census date, educational levels obtained, and more!  You can click here to see detailed questions and enumerator instructions for the 1940 Census.

I look forward to sharing the journey of exploring this census with all of my readers.  If you haven't already, please consider signing up to help with the indexing. It as easy as visiting the official 1940 Census site and signing up by giving just your email address and your name.  You even get to pick the state(s) that you are most interesteing working on! The more hands "on deck", the sooner we'll have a fully searchable digital index to go with these precious documents!

Renate

A census-taker interviews a woman for the 1940 Census

(picture courtesy of census.gov)

https://the1940census.com/