So good that in high school, he even got written up in opponents’ yearbooks—after beating them:
 

South Pasedena High School, Copa De Oro, 1937

At Pasadena Junior College, he wowed folks in track,

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1938

baseball,

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1938

basketball,

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1939

and football,

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1939

the sport that led to his being dubbed the greatest individual athlete on the greatest team in PJC history in 1938.

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1939

He even excelled at “outstanding service to the school” by those “whose scholastic and citizenship record is worthy of recognition” and was tapped for membership in the Mast and Dagger society during his second year, “the highest honor attainable at PJC.”

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1939

He was so good, that during his first year at UCLA, he appeared in captions for photos he wasn’t even in, like this one of a group of sophomore class officers downing their drink “with all the speed of a Jackie Robinson 60-yard dash.”

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1940

Jackie started making his name on the gridiron for the Bruins in 1939.

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1940

The Bruins had a tough season the next year, but Robinson was one of the bright spots, whether they were losing to Stanford:

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1941

Or during their one win against Washington State:

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1941

It was news (good and bad) when Jackie chose baseball over track.

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1941

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1941

He even made it into rival USC’s yearbook for his prowess on the hardwood.

USC, El Rodeo, 1941

And he made news again when he left UCLA early.

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1941

How good was Jackie Robinson? He seemed to fill any stage he took. Long before he ever stepped onto the diamond to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier, he had already proved that one campus, one floor, or one field would not be large enough to contain Jackie Robinson.

You can look for your big men, and women, on campus in our U.S. School Yearbooks collection.

From U.S., Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936-1938

It’s more than history—it’s life.

You can find out where to look for your own family’s stories at ancestry.com/africanamerican.

From U.S., Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936-1938

Good’s is one of thousands of stories you can find in first-person slave narratives like this one, collected by the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s.

You can learn how to look for the African American heroes in your family’s past at ancestry.com/africanamerican.

Henry O. Flipper, the first black graduate of West Point, was charged with embezzlement while serving as a buffalo soldier. The image is from the monthly return that notes his arrest in 1881.

He was found not guilty but was still dismissed from the Army for conduct unbecoming an officer. The Army finally gave him his honorable discharge in 1976, and President Bill Clinton granted a full pardon in 1999.

Learn how to follow the paper trail left by your African American ancestors at ancestry.com/africanamerican.

He explained in his interview with Federal Writers Project members how the earth thundered and rolled until folks thought the Judgment had come. People were praying, and the cows and chickens were making a racket. He said the world around him looked like a top spinning for what seemed like thirty minutes. And once it stopped, “We was all good bout two years after dat.”

From U.S., Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936-1938

You can learn how to discover what shook up your own ancestors at ancestry.com/africanamerican.

From U.S., African American Newspapers, 1829-1947

According to the October 9, 1859, Weekly Anglo-African, if Jack Peterson and Moses Sherwood hadn’t decided to take on a landing party from the British sloop of war Vulture by themselves, thereby frustrating Major Andre’s escape, Arnold might have given away West Point after all. And this came after Jack had already joined the Revolutionary army, buried the friend he went to war with, and escaped from a ship after being taken prisoner.

Learn how to find your own war heroes at ancestry.com/africanamerican.

Christy’s tenure with the unit was short. The 10^th Cavalry’s regimental return for August 1867 notes that he was killed in action on August 2^nd, the first buffalo soldier to die in combat.

From U.S., Buffalo Soldiers, Returns From Regular Army Cavalry Regiments, 1866-1916

Find out how to search for your own African American veterans at ancestry.com/africanamerican.

He didn’t like it.

John and Vada Sommerville from the California, African American Who’s Who, 1948, database.

This Who’s Who bio explains how John and his wife, Vada, spent the rest of their lives fighting back: becoming the first black man and woman to graduate from USC’s dental school, seeing the local NAACP branch organized in their home—even opening their own hotel.

You can learn more about finding your own civil rights warriors at ancestry.com/africanamerican.

Incidentally, according to our count of Halloweens, Mrs. Waltrip was, in fact, only one of more than 40 “Halloweens” listed in the 1940 U.S. Census. Since the census doesn’t record birth dates, there’s no way of knowing if all the Halloweens were born on October 31 and simply fell victim to the spirit of the season, as it were. But Halloween isn’t the only spooky name parents have saddled their children with, either.

In fact, speaking of Spooky, there’s always Spooky King of Mississippi. Or Fright Davis, who apparently took in lodgers, according to the 1920 census. (But did they ever leave…?)

If you thought Dracula was a boy’s name, time to think again. Dracula Taylor was very much a woman, wife of Bert and mother of John R. (No word on who actually talked to the census taker that day and whether Dracula was a given name or simply a loving epithet.)

Speaking of thinking again, you might think twice about trick-or-treating at Ghoul Hall’s place. Or knocking on Witch Hazel Hofling’s door hoping for a treat. Pumpkin Hudgkins’s house sounds much more friendly. Ghoul might have been out with his pillowcase working the neighborhood with Goblin Harris and Skeleton Evans anyway.

If you were in Chicago, for years you could have tried your luck at Victor and Irma Frankensteins’ door. (It’s really, Irma, not Igor—check the record.) Or you could find folks named Boo all over the country, from Boo Boatright in Maryland to Boo Murray in Washington.

And though I was hoping for a “Casper” or maybe even a “Space,” no luck: Ghost Ballias’s siblings were named Georgia, Helen, and Paul. All nice names. But where’s the fun in that?

The first is 100, as in 100 percent of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census is now indexed. That means all 50 states are available to search to your heart’s content.

Our indexing came up with 134,395,545 people counted. Most reports on the 1940 census give the U.S. population as 132 million and change, so you may be wondering where the extra 2 million people came from. Two words: Puerto Rico. OK, and Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Panama Canal Zone. They were all included in the 1940 U.S. census and add another 2.1 million or so records to the final count.

The Oldest American(s)

We came up with a tie for the oldest person in the census: Mary Dilworth of Oxford, Mississippi,

and Cándido Vega Y Torres of Guayama, Puerto Rico, both listed their ages as 119.

We identified 35,646,274 heads of household, for an average household size of 3.7 people. The average age of the respondent who talked with the enumerator was 43.

Where Did They All Come From?

It’s probably not difficult to guess the number one state reported as birthplace on the census, but a couple of the other nine might surprise you. Here they are in order:

New York

Pennsylvania

Illinois

Ohio

Texas

Missouri

Michigan

North Carolina

Georgia

Amongst foreign-born folks, the top five reported birth countries were

Italy

Germany

Russia

Poland

England

So, What’s Your Name?

We can also tell you the top 10 male and female names on the 1940 census:

John

William

James

Robert

Joseph

George

Charles

Frank

Edward

Richard

Mary

Anna

Helen

Margaret

Elizabeth

Dorothy

Ruth

Marie

Rose

Alice

If you need proof, just stroll down this street in Butler, PA:

The top five surnames in the 1940 census were Smith, Johnson, Brown, Williams, and Jones.

Who Do You Want to Find?

But the most important number in the 1940 U.S. Census might be 1. That one date you’ve been waiting to find. That one relative you hadn’t been able to locate until now. That one discovery that opens up a dozen more. One more question, one more record, one last look…

So dig in and enjoy. After all, it’s 10 years before we get another one.