Learning about Using the 1940 Census

Here is the latest announcement from Steve Morse and Joel Weintraub of One-Step Research fame about using the 1940 Census when it becomes available next Spring:

    "In less than 10 months the 1940 US Population Schedules will become public. It will not be name indexed, so it will be necessary to do an address search in order to find families. Address searching involves knowing the ED (enumeration district) in which the address is located. The National Archives (NARA) earlier this year indicated they had plans to make available in 2011 the 1940 ED maps of cities and counties, and ED descriptions, but their recent move to consider having a 3rd party host all the images may have appreciably set back this timetable.    

 "The only website that currently has location tools for the 1940 census is the Steve Morse One Step site (http://stevemorse.org). There are several such tools there, and it could be overwhelming to figure out which tool to use when. There is a tutorial that attempts to clarify it (http://stevemorse.org/census/intro.html) and an extensive FAQ (http://stevemorse.org/census/faq.htm).

    "We are announcing the opening of another educational utility to help people learn about the different 1940 locational search tools on the One Step site, and information about the 1940 census itself. It is in the form of a quiz, and should help many, many genealogists quickly learn how to search an unindexed census by location. The new utility is at:http://stevemorse.org/census/quiz.php and is called “How to Access the 1940 Census in One Step”. Not only is it informative, we hope it is entertaining.

    "Thanks. Joel Weintraub & Steve Morse"

We should be the ones giving "thanks." The utility is very informative and should help us all in understanding what is necessary to work with the 1940 Census next year when it is released by NARA.