One week to 1940!

We are finally coming to our Census (pun diefinitely intended!)

The official release of the 1940 U.S. Census is nearly upon us after decades of waiting.

- Do you know where to look since enumeration districts will be the inital search parameters?

- Have you looked at all of your ancestors - not just your Dad's side?

- Do you have any sibling branches you are curious about? These can be gold you know for busting down a brick wall or two!

Remember the Genedocs Census Summary (CEN)? - NOW is great time to get it ready, keep it handy, and use it to its full powerful potential; be it name variants, place of birth variants, or just having each ancestor's entire census data in one convenient place.

Have a great hunt!

11 Days to 1940 U.S. Census Release !

WHile I post daily featured forms on facebook - most of us are getting ready to bombard the 1940 Census search capabilities (by enumeration district only at first) with our onslaught of queries about our folks, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives alive then and living in the United States. Good luck with your search and if you have time - remember to volunteer to index.

March - Upgrading from 3 forms a month to all 30 each month!

Now that to goal of 400 friends has been achived on facebook, I will share with my readers that starting today I will shoot to post on facebook not 3 featured forms a month, but instead post one per day - Yes! that's all 30 per month, every month! Even with taking a few college courses, I should be able to spread Genedocs most widely for all folks not on fb everyday and manage it well if my time on task is managed wisely.

Here are the first three forms for March:


Individual Information/Photographic Summary:

This template can preserve three images from three distict periods in any relatives life - young, adulthood, and elderly. It also has a great section below the photos for more personally telling detils of their life...see for yourself:

Eight Decades of Photos:

This template was originally designed for couples who live up to 80 years together. then I realized it could be used for siblings as well, and recently for an individual also as the example of my father shows below:

Pocket Photo Pedigree:

The third form is a very handy tool indeed. When you find yourself out in the boonies with no phoe reception, internet access, and/ofr a dead device battery, just break out this conversation starter and watch the hours fly by with discussions of family research and adventures.

Dual Portrait for Physical Similarity Tracking

Here is a key example why to use dual portrait descriptors on your charts:

Her Mother:

Do you notice the similarity of these two when little girl photos are compared?

You never know who you may look like. (Ilham Anas above resembles President Obama in many ways!)

Leisure Series Logo - Finally!

Nothing says Leisure more than taking two months to design it!


We all end up procrastinators either by nature or choice in some area or another although as we age we prefer to have that excuse as well. Some times you really just have to put everything else aside and kick your feet up and relax. This is the perfect time to sit on the porch or beach(if you can get near one)sip some of your favorite beverage and take some me time. Of course, if you are a die hard family researcher, you will sneak out some key items from your"to-do" list out with that favorite drink!

I myself have dozens of pending miscellanious creations yet to add and share so when work, school, and chores are done, I'll be right here, on facebook, or the wetpaint sites doing some much needed spring cleaning in the genealogy department - but only because it is effortless to me on most days. By the way I am very excited to announce I am keeping up that 4.0 GPA and onto Advanced Composition Class this week.
(for anyone following the EDU accomplishments in my own Genealogy File Folder. For someone who never had a 4.0 in high school, I like taking pride in being over 40 and still having what it takes to excel (MS Office pun intended for sure!)

Anyway, it is finally March and we are starting to open up our garage doors, mow lawns in the Southern U.S, and planning how many garage sales it will take to finally get the car a parking spot in the garage!

............- The Apr 2010 E-Magazine Cover.

For March Genedocs is ramping up for the wonderful 2012 of the 1940 Census, which, if you haven't heard, is not going to be immediately searchable by name, so you need to brush up on locating where your folks, granparends, or even great gradparents presumably resided on April 1st back then. This means thinking like an ennumerator - what state, what county, what district, heck, if you can even narrow it down to the AA # (just kidding - a little census clerk inside humor getting out from my 2010 experience).


The more you have it narrowed down, then the better off you will be for quickly finding all the relevant family members. FOr instance I will give you some insight into my game plan...

I have two parents and three grandparents who were living in 1940:

...........Richard, Dorothy holding Gyp, Pearl, Ray, and Gloria (abt 1931)


Father's side: Ray A Jelle - per my sister's 1985 interview with him, he should be in High School in Hot SPrings, Fall River County, SD living with his widowed mother Dorothy and two sisters Pearl and Gloria.
It should read something like this:

1940 South Dakota FallRivcver County City of Hot Springs
Last Name..First...Status..MStatus..Age...Where Born..Parents Birth
JELLE, Dorothy....Head...widowed...42....Denmark...Mo & Fa,..born.Denm
....."......Pearl......school...single......18....SD......Mo Denm fa MN
....."......Ray........school...single......17....SD......mo b Denm fa MN
....."......Gloria...school...single......15....SD......mo b Denm fa MN

Mother's side: Sandra Lynne Edlund - per my grandmother's journal in the red small notebook I posted a lttle about last year, she indicates they (her,m, husband Luke, and daughter Sandra)were on the 31st of March bording in a room at McKains in Coalgate Oklahoma. The next entry incicates Apr 20 they went to Athens and then home (presumably Crockett, TX. This superb detail at least allows me to map their travels and have several towns to choose from in that about 22 day period if they down't show up in Coalgate as boarders.

Once I have it narrowed as close to the town family members were said to be residing, then it is off to the FREE National Archives classes on 2012 searching by district of online at Familysearch.org depending on if I want /need another day off of work. I will likely be right on track with Dad and Dorothy with his sisters, but Mom and her folks were following Luke's very transient Oil rig carrer in the 40's (they didn't settle in Miles City, MT until abt. 1946 per Nana Kaye's journal. (Thank you Nana for this pocket sized outstanding legacy of love - what a goldmine!)
Again,this may cause some more deductive tools to be used if not found in Coalgate, OK like using her entries before and after Apr 1940, maps, and Googling old historical Oil field activity in that area of OK down toward Athens. Who knows!


I hope this is helpful for people who can't wait to see what the 1940 U.S. Census can reveal about their roots.