Comments on: 1940 Census Update – Six More States Now Searchable By Name

By: Donna Clouse

Donna Clouse — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:10:38 +0000

Some of us seniors with serious don’t have time to wait for user corrections to the 1940 census errors. I don’t have a FEW YEARS but I would like to finalize my family tree with the last census (1940) that I’ll ever see. I know it’s a big job BUT we the users pay a premium amount to join Ancestry. I think since you have most of the genealogy sites & software in YOUR control, plus subscriber fees, you could put out top notch material for us to use. I’m going to check back in 6 months to see if Indiana & Arkansas are done before I re-up my membership. Too many places offer the census records for users . We don’t have to settle for less than good for sure.

By: Gloria

Gloria — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 19:36:56 +0000

Virginia is one of the states that is done so why is it not in the drop down menu?

By: Judy Springer

Judy Springer — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 12:24:21 +0000

I agree with the comments re: the terrible transcribing of the 1940 census. Of the names I have checked there is at least a 25% error rate. I would be willing to correct Jefferson township, Mercer County, Ohio. I am sure that other members may be willing to correct other segments with which they are familiar.

By: Trevor Thacker

Trevor Thacker — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:17:21 +0000

Skip (#12) – We’re currently looking into the issue that you are describing. Would you mind providing more details, along with a link to the 1940 census page that you are referring to, via email to socialsupport@ancestry.com? We would appreciate it!

By: BEE

BEE — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:02:58 +0000

I agree with the comments on transcribing. I’m finding families in PA because I know what I’m looking for and have a few tricks that work for me – using “old search”, even though I’m working with ethnic surnames – but some common first names are badly transcribed, probably by someone who isn’t familiar with “American” names, but isn’t the work checked for errors?

By: Margaret

Margaret — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:50:30 +0000

I just started looking for people in the 1940 PA census and I am bewildered at how some of these names were transcribed. The only way I have found people I know are there is by location and YOB. I have also found location errors (Stouth for Stout and Whitestone Hill for Yatesville). The handwriting is not that bad. I have submitted corrections but I add my voice to those who would like higher indexing standards. I do not think it is reasonable to wait for user corrections which are haphazard. Ancestry should just do it right the first time.

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 14:27:22 +0000

I sympathize with Kim (post #1) and agree with Teri (post #3) – I saw this when doing the indexing of 1940 census for familysearch.org – the index for them is done by well-meaning volunteers, some may not be paying a lot of attention or just not that skilled and they put down something just to get through the page. I have compared whole pages and the familysearch index seems to have better transcription. To me the user-update process will have to have time to improve the index’s usefuleness.

By: David Farr

David Farr — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:56:12 +0000

Your Ohio,indexing is horrible. I found what I was searching for by looking at individual cities and townships,but when searching they don’t show up,apparrently the indexing is hodgepodge at best. please do not eliminate the ability to brose individual records or the census will be useless.

By: BobNY

BobNY — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 22:54:26 +0000

Rather than paying someone to create these cute little vignettes for each state, why not pay someone to do quality control on your uniformly atrocious transcriptions.

By: Skip Harrison

Skip Harrison — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 19:54:01 +0000

Like the first poster (Kim), I too am really disappointed with the quality of the indexing so far. Both my parents and grandparents (Harrison)were transcribed incorrectly in separate records in a different manner. When I did find the records and looked at the original documents I could not see how they came up with the spelling they settled on. I have the advantage of knowing what I’m looking for but how one can get Harcow out of Harrison floors me.