The 1940 Census - Behind the Scenes

Did you know the U.S. National Archives has a Flikr account?  I saw this post from GeneaJulia a couple of days ago and started looking at the recently-uploaded photos from the 1940 Census.  


This is the head of a census unit tabulator.  Apparently this is a very large machine, and it took up quite a bit of space.

Courtesy U.S. National Archives

These ladies are building the wiring units for the tabulators.  Take a close look.  Would you want to have to follow those directions?

Courtesy U.S. National Archives

Courtesy U.S. National Archives

Courtesy U.S. National Archives

806 individuals were employed to work on occupational coding alone!


It's interesting to see all that went into recording, analyzing, and disseminating all the information contained in the 1940 census, and how many people and processes it took to get it all done.


My thanks go out to each and every one of the many people who worked on tabulating the 1940 census just so I could research my family history!


You can help make the 1940 Census research-ready by volunteering to index with me!  Go to the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project and sign up!

Do we share any ancestors?

Please email me at lostancestors [at] gmail [dot] com