Actors hold parties for the premieres of their movies. Musical artists celebrate the releases of their latest albums. However, genealogists, historians and general lovers of history had another release to celebrate.
For privacy, U.S . Census data is kept anonymous for 72 years for confidentiality before it is released, meaning March 2 of this year was the first time data from the 1940s had ever been made publicly available. While many people weren’t even aware of the release, the State Library of North Carolina was–they threw a party with music, clothes and movies from the era to celebrate the occasion.
”People will learn some things they didn’t already know about their families or ancestors that never came out in stories,” Rebecca Hyman , a reference and outreach librarian at the State Library, said. She said she will be looking for her grandparents and great-grandparents in the newly opened records.
Moreover, this particular census release is novel for a variety of reasons–first of all, it is the only time during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency a census was taken, so it will give us some insight to how his New Deal policies of relief, recovery and reform battled the Great Depression right before World War II.
Although aspects such as the economic effects of New Deal policies have already been extensively examined by economists who were able to see the census data without personal information such as the names, the census does provide historians and genealogists with information to examine the personal plights of individuals living through the decade.
“This was the first time that the census did sampling–they sampled 5 percent of the U.S . population with certain questions,” Hyman said. “This was also the first time they had a question about where you lived April 1, 1935–midway through the last decade.”
This location information between censuses will help historians look at migration patterns caused by the Great Depression.
It will also be able to give us a look at social change and how it progressed, particularly on the subject of gender roles. This census will be eventually compared to the 1950s census, showing how women were becoming more active in the workplace.
“In the 40s you have women going to work and when the men came home, they didn’t necessarily want to go back and do the same old job at home, so you’re going to see a lot of changes,” Elizabeth Hayden, the state demographics and reference librarian, said.
Much of the information, however, is personal. The census includes questions like, “Where were your parents born?” “Do you have a native language?” “Have you been married more than once?” and “How old were you when you first got married?” Therefore, the release attracts many people looking into their family history.
“I never knew either set of grandparents, so that’s why this is a burning thing for me; I want to find these people,” Marissa Williams, who does her family genealogy as a hobby, said.
She has been doing genealogy research since she moved to North Carolina and has so far traced herself back to her white great-grandfather and the slave he was willed, Harriet.
This release, and the fact that the information will be digital for the first time, will make her search a lot simpler.
“At first it’s really hard, because you think you know what you’re doing–you’re going to go to the library and say the names. But with a last name like Williams it’s not easy,” Williams said.
Genealogists are particularly thrilled because the census includes questions about family relationships in a time where parents were unable to support their children and many were given up to other relatives. This will allow those who were tracing their family trees to go a few steps further.
“If you had a big family you might not be able to feed all your children and it may have been that you had a relative take in their nephew or niece,” Hayden said.
While this is the first time the census has ever been freely available online, it is not yet organized by name. At the moment you have to know the address of the person you are searching for, though people are already working furiously to create a search-by-name database.
Many librarians and genealogists in the State Library are more than willing to help sort through these, or older, census records if anyone expresses interest.
“We have a whole floor and collection just dedicated to that,” Hyman said.
