Four More States Added to 1940 Index

Attention Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Montana family historians! The 1940 census index for those four states is now available at Archives.com/1940-census. Eighteen states total are now free to search by name.

Stories abound in the 1940 census. George Self was living in Honolulu County in 1940. The 40-year-old Oklahoman was listed with the occupation "Rigger Helper: Navy Yard." You can't help but wonder if he was there Sunday morning December 7, 1941 during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. It's his story, and others, we're excited to help you uncover.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that approximately 13% of people moved from one county to another or from one state to another between 1935 and 1940. Such a mobile population can make it difficult to track down who you are looking for, especially if they ended up in a big city.

One such person was Louis Aldrige. He was born in Oklahoma and lived in Muskogee in 1935, but you won't find him there in the 1940 census. He had moved to New Orleans. Unless you knew that, you would spend some fruitless hours searching for him. The name index makes locating family in the census considerably easier, and you can use it for free on Archives.com.

We're happy to be a sponsor of the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project, the volunteer effort to bring the 1940 census name index online for free. You can learn more about the project and how you can volunteer at the1940census.com. The work is more than 50% complete, but we need your help to get to the finish line!

More indexes are being published every week. Be certain to check here regularly or sign up to be notified when new indexes arrive.