Almost Finished! 1940 Census Indexing: July 2012 Update

The California Genealogical Society is part of the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project to create a free, online searchable name index of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census.

CGS has sixty-six indexers who are part of a team of almost 155,000 volunteers. Our team members indexed 13,301 names and arbitrated 8,739 during the month of July. 

Amazingly, after only four months, the project is almost finished!

99% of the 1940 census has been indexed and arbitrated. More than 134 million records have been indexed and thirty-one states are searchable by name.

President Jeffrey Vaillant is our acting project coordinator and he is posting periodic "cheerleading" messages to our group participants. 

Thank you to all of our hard-working indexing and arbitrating volunteers! 

If you didn't get a change to participate, don't worry! New indexing projects are added every week. 

Next up: the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Community Project.


Copyright © 2012 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

Western States Complete! 1940 Census Indexing – June 2012 Update

The California Genealogical Society is part of the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project to create a free, online searchable name index of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census.

CGS currently has sixty-six indexers who are part of a team of more than 143,000 volunteers. Our team members indexed 14,299 names and arbitrated 6,970 during the month of June. The project is ahead of schedule and FamilySearch created the graphic above to show that indexing is more than halfway to completion.

In fact, by the end of June, 75% of the entire 1940 census was indexed and arbitrated! More than 105 million records have been indexed, twenty-nine states and territories are searchable by name, and the entire western U.S. is complete.

President Jeffrey Vaillant is our acting project coordinator and he is posting periodic "cheerleading" messages to our group participants.

Thank you to all of our hard-working indexing and arbitrating volunteers!

If you haven't signed on yet, this may be your last chance to participate. Join us and the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project.

Copyright © 2012 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

Congratulations California! 1940 Census Indexing – May 2012 Update

The California Genealogical Society is part of the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project to create a free, online searchable name index of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census.

The CGS umbrella now has sixty-four indexers who indexed 28,656 names and arbitrated 10,400 during the month of May.

President Jeffrey Vaillant is our acting project coordinator and he is posting periodic "cheerleading" messages to our group participants.

Amazingly, 1940 census indexing for the entire U.S. is already more than half completed! FamilySearch Indexing is reporting the following statistics:

• 51.88% of the entire project has been completely indexed. 
• More than twenty states are at or above 85% complete. 
• Six states — Delaware, Colorado, Kansas, Oregon, Virginia, and New Hampshire — are now indexed and searchable by name, location, and family relations. 

California is almost finished! The Golden State is 97% indexed, thanks largely to more than forty California genealogical societies that are part of the community project. But don't stop, there is still much to be done in other states, and, as we all know, Californians come from everywhere.

To see the status of each state, visit FamilySearch.org/1940census.

Thanks to all of our hard-working indexers!

If you haven't signed on yet, join CGS and the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project.

Copyright © 2012 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

1940 Census Indexing – April 2012 Update

The California Genealogical Society is part of the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project to create a free, online searchable name index of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census.

Fifty-eight indexers have signed on to participate under the CGS umbrella. For the month of April, our group has indexed 29,829 names and arbitrated 2000!

President Jeffrey Vaillant is our acting project coordinator and he is posting periodic "cheerleading" messages to our group participants. We are seeing new members sign on every week.

Overall, the project is exceeding expectations. As of April 20, 2012, FamilySearch Indexing reported the following statistics:

• So far, 14.2% of the entire project has been completely indexed.
• We have 75,820 indexers and arbitrators working to index and arbitrate the census records.
• Colorado and Kansas have been completely indexed and are being processed in preparation for posting on FamilySearch.org.
• Delaware is posted online at FamilySearch.org.
• Nine states (Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming) are 80% or more indexed and will soon be complete. To see the status of each state, visit FamilySearch.org/1940census.
• A total of 19,242,589 records have been indexed and arbitrated by volunteers.

The state of California is more than 25% indexed already – perhaps because fifty Golden State genealogical societies are part of the community project.

Thanks to all of our hard-working indexers!

If you haven't signed on yet, don't delay! Join us and the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project.


Copyright © 2012 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

Join Us and the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project

 

The California Genealogical Society is proud of our continuing partnership with FamilySearch Indexing.

CGS has joined forces with genealogy societies around the country as part of the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project to create a free, online searchable name index of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census after images of the census are released to the public starting April 2, 2012.

The 1940 Census is attractive to both new and experienced researchers because most people in the United States can remember a relative that was living in 1940. It will do more to connect living memory with historical records and families than any other collection previously made available.
—David Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer for FamilySearch.

Join our members throughout California and across the U.S. (and one international indexer!) who have signed on to help. Visit The1940census.com/society and register to participate with our society. Simply select California Genealogical Society and Library on the profile screen when creating your account. Every new person indexing with our society gets us closer to milestones that qualify us for incentives provided by the sponsors of the project, so sign up today!

Steps to take:

1. Download and install the indexing software
   Watch an Overview | Get Started
2. Learn how to index the 1940 US Census
   Watch a Video | Try the 1940 Census indexing simulation
3. Let others know about the 1940 US Census Community Project
   Like the Facebook page | Follow @The1940Census on Twitter | Follow the page on Google+ | Tell friends about the1940census.com

Thank you for your help!

 

Copyright © 2012 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

Update on CGS Projects with FamilySearch Indexing

The California Genealogical Society and Library is partnering with FamilySearch Indexing on its second Partner Project – the U.S., California 1852 State Census. The project is classified as “Skill level: Intermediate” and is “recommended for volunteers who are familiar with the indexing process and comfortable using various system features. The documents are old and some of the handwriting is difficult to read.”

FamilySearch is indexing the 1852 California census even though this record set is available on Ancestry.com. Once this project is complete, there are some San Francisco record sets in line to be indexed, including records of San Francisco citizens of German descent who were required to register during WWI. The San Francisco Public Library has information about the Alien enemy registration affidavits, 1918. There are several other sets to follow that will greatly assist San Francisco researchers.

Heading up the 1852 State Census project for the society is one of our new members – Maureen Stephan. Maureen joined CGS last year after she visited the library during a family vacation to San Francisco from her home in Kansas:

It was the best vacation we've ever had! We did and saw so many wonderful things. We walked up and down Lombard Street a couple of times, went on a cruise on the bay, saw the tiled steps, went on a walking tour of Chinatown and an architecture tour of downtown San Francisco, drove up to Twin Peaks and looked out over the city (we were lucky - no fog!), rode the cable cars – and ate at In-N-Out Burger for the first time (loved it!).

The Stephan family.

One day I went to the CGS Library while my husband took our two daughters up to Sacramento (my oldest daughter was born at Mather AFB) where they went to Old Town and the train museum. I had a great time at the library – everyone was so helpful. I found a couple of things about some of my relatives who used to live in San Francisco.

Maureen is able to coordinate the project for CGS from her home in Kansas for the same reason that our members can index from where ever they live. If you don’t yet have an indexing account with FamilySearch, find out how easy it is with the two-minute test drive. Follow the instructions to download the indexing program to your computer.

Once have an indexing account with FamilySearch, you will need to “join” our group. If you have any problems, either with joining the group or indexing, email Maureen and she will guide you through the process.

I'm honored to have been asked to coordinate the California 1852 state census project, and look forward to helping on more projects!  –Maureen Stephan

Copyright © 2011 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

The California Genealogical Society and FamilySearch on YouTube

I was disappointed not to have been able to attend the first RootsTech Conference this past weekend in Salt Lake City. Congratulations to FamilySearch.org and to the presenters and participants. I've been following the #rootstech tweets and blog posts.

One thing caught my eye on Facebook – a reference to familysearch.org on YouTube. (Thank you, Linda Herrick Swisher.) There was something I'd been waiting to see and had no idea it was posted online.

I shared some photos last August from the interviews with Jane Lindsey and Nancy Peterson and the filming FamilySearch did at the library. Now you can see the entire film on YouTube!

California Genealogical Society and Library works with FamilySearch to provide free online access to the records of funeral homes in the San Francisco area. These records are among the few collections that date back prior to 1906 and the San Francisco earthquake and are great substitutes for death records for that time period.

Thanks very much FamilySearch!

Update 3/1/11: the California Genealogical Society and Library is starting our next collaboration with FamilySearch Indexing: the 1852 California State Census Project.


Copyright © 2011 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

Wordless Wednesday

On this Day: Starring Jane Lindsey and Nancy Peterson
FamilySearch Indexing Film for FGS 2010

Photographs courtesy of Patrick Parker and Christopher Clark of FamilySearch Indexing, Oakland, California, 7/22/2010.


Copyright © 2010 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

Update on San Francisco Mortuary Records Indexing

If you are interested in participating in the San Francisco Mortuary Records Indexing Project and you haven't signed up yet, you better get started because things are moving faster than anyone anticipated!

Rose Pierson of FamilySearch Indexing sent some updated statistics.

The project now has 3,975 batches (39,750 images). Each batch is indexed twice - "A" and "B" - an arbitrator will look again at a batch if the two indexers don't agree.

As of yesterday,

3,362 "A" batches complete - 84.58%
3,157 "B" batches complete - 79.42%
2042 Arbitrations complete - 51.37%

Rose thinks that at this rate, this portion of the project should be fully indexed sometime in August.

Next to be processed are the images from twenty-nine rolls of microfilmed mortuary registers. Included in these rolls are the records dating from the mid-1800s. These are a bit more complicated to set up for the indexing project since some of them are accounting records.

The bottom line is, if you want to participate, don't delay.

Arbitrators Needed: A Request from FamilySearch Indexing

We need your help! The number of batches being arbitrated is out of balance compared with the number of batches being indexed. Please spend as much time as possible doing arbitration, especially for the Washington State Deaths and Louisiana 1850-1954 Death Certificates projects. If the gap between the number of batches indexed and the number of batches arbitrated grows too large, indexing batches will not be assigned (even though they are available) until the arbitration numbers come back into balance. If you notice that a project is on the Download From… list, but the system states that there are no batches available to index, please download and submit arbitration batches as soon as possible for the same project. Arbitration is a vital step in ensuring a constant flow of data through the indexing pipeline. We sincerely appreciate your efforts.

Report on the First 24 Hours of the Mortuary Indexing Project

Rose Pierson of FamilySearch Indexing sent some statistics on the San Francisco Mortuary Project. She will be sending reports weekly.

The project includes 38,837 total images in 3,883 total batches.

After 24 hours:

814 total images have been indexed (81 batches)
1560 images checked out for A indexing (156 batches)
1140 images checked out for B indexing (114 batches)

I found time to process a couple of batches. The records were from 1895 (pre-earthquake!) and included one child who died at age 8 of tubercular meningitis. With the missing 1890 census, this is a child who never appeared in a U.S. census. The record gave her mother's name, another name that may be a sister and a note that she was placed in a vault in May 1895 and shipped to Albuquerque, New Mexico the next January (1896). Good stuff!

S.F. Mortuary Records Rise From the Dead

In a cooperative effort with SFgenealogy.com, the San Francisco Public Library, the Genealogical Society of Utah and FamilySearch Indexing, the California Genealogical Society is pleased to announce the start of the San Francisco Mortuary Records Indexing Project. The project is the culmination of two years' work by the entities involved, to bring the digital images of thousands of mortuary records, stored by the Halsted Gray Mortuary in San Francisco, to researchers all over the world. The records are a significant genealogical find because of the richness of their detail and the miraculous way they survived the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.

The records include the complete holdings of the first mortuary in San Francisco, undertakers N. Gray & Co., from the day it opened - July 1, 1850. In all, the project includes the surviving records, up to 1920, of several mortuaries that merged with either Halsted or Gray, over the years. The records include notations from financial ledgers, cemetery records, removal records and headstone notations. Many have obituary clippings.

Rose Pierson of Family Search Indexing has been working diligently to ready the project for volunteers. The CGS project is now listed on the Current Projects page (scroll down to the bottom and look for the CGS logo.)

The Project Home Page gives three digital examples of how the records look and has a link to project-specific indexing instructions. Please take advantage of the training tutorials located under the "Help" tab.

I'll have more to say about the project in the coming days and I will report on my own indexing experience. (I did some beta testing and I guarantee you will be thrilled with the kind of information you will find.) I encourage everyone to use the comments section at the bottom of this post to let us know about your experience in the project.

Report On the First 24 Hours - July 22, 2008

Update - Friday, August 1, 2008


Update - February 11, 2011. Watch the YouTube video about our project!