Question regarding the 1940 US Census
I have been unable to find my family in the 1940 US Census. I have searched for them by name with no luck & I even know the exact city & exact address at which they lived. Does anyone have any suggestions? The closest I have gotten is right across the street from their address.
Answers
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If you want to share details, if the family is deceased, we can perhaps be of more help.
But, some people were missed in any census.When the 1940 was released, I was ready. I had the exact location where my 21-year-old mother was living while working as a teller in the local bank. I stayed up until just past midnight that night, armed with all the info. Nothing. She wasn't there.
The next day, without effort, I found my maternal grandparents in one state, my paternal grandparents and my father in another state. Then I found my mother's older sister enumerated with her new husband TWICE.My mother and her younger sister are simply not enumerated in 1940. The instructions were to list each person where they usually lived. Both my mother and her younger sister were boarding away from home during the week and went home on the weekend. As far as I can determine, they fell through the cracks of that instruction.
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As suggested by @Áine.ní.Donnghaile it would be best if you could share some details so we can help you more efficiently.
If not, in all cases like yours where exact address is "known" - things change - I always go to stevemorse's website to quickly pull up the possible pages.
See here: https://stevemorse.org/census/unified.html?year=1940
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Thanks for the responses.
I am looking in Louisville, Kentucky and have looked at the stevemorse page. I used it to get what I thought was the correct ED (121-121) and have found numerous houses on the exact street but not the particular one I was looking for. I've gotten as close as the house across the street and as close as 5 houses to one side. Another problem is that this entire part of town was sold in the 1960s I believe and is now part the airport in Louisville.
If I could find a map of Louisville detailing the boundaries of each ED, that might be helpful, but haven't had luck in finding on with enough detail. A map might help me so I don't have to search every ED.
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First, of course, as Áine said, they may not have been enumerated. It's very possible.
Since you haven't told us the exact address you're seeking, I guess the best bet is that you give this website a try: https://gannett.cc/ed-map
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@Bob Morrison_1
The National Archives site has maps as well as written descriptions of the EDs.
https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/finding-aids3 -
I have search for and found the map which includes the EDs street I was looking for. After reviewing the census images, I'm almost certain that they were not enumerated for whatever reason. Thank you for your help on this. On to the next brick wall I guess.
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Just one last tip, in case you didn't try - once you have found the exact pages that contain the street you were seeking, and did not find them, go to the last few pages/images of that same film - often, those "not home, enumerated later" entries appear there out of order.
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As was SantaNinfa noted earlier, these often appear starting at Sheet Number 61 and as was mentioned are towards/at the end of the 'normal' sheets. Review the regular sheets and look at the visitation numbers for those households that you were able to find on the same street. They should be in numerical order. See if one may be 'missing'. Could be a clue that they were not home when the first visit occurred and that they may be on one of the 60-series sheets
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