Monday, April 2, 2012

#1940Census 2:00pm EDT Status Report

1940 Census 2:00pm EDT Status Report.

Ancestry.com leads the horse race followed by FamilySearch.org. NARA/Archives.com is currently a distant third. If they were to fix their server problems, they would be #1. MyHeritage and FindMyPast are no-shows so far.

  • FamilySearch.org – ED information searchable for Delaware. Apparently all Delaware images are available, but some errors occur when viewing.
  • Indexing.FamilySearch.org – No indexing projects. None projected until this evening.
  • 1940census.archives.gov – Basically “crashed” because of large demand. Displays text only. Couldn’t get images to display.
  • Ancestry.com – Images available for 14 states (and territories): American Samoa, California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Guam, Indiana, Maine, Nevada, New York, Panama Canal, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virgin Islands, Virginia.
  • MyHeritage.com – Couldn’t find any 1940 data.
  • FindMyPast.com – Couldn’t find any 1940 data.
  • Archives.com – Couldn’t find any 1940 data on their site, but does have a link to the NARA site which they host.

10 comments:

  1. Ancestry.com is showing PARTS of images from 1940 Census, not entire census for those states.

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    1. How so? At http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2442 it says 10 of 14 are Complete.

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    2. You answered your own question. If it says 10 of 14 are Complete, that means there are four which are NOT complete.

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  2. I just wanted to give a shoutout to the New York Public Library (NYPL), who designed a really easy to use and useful site for the 1940 city directory for the five boroughs of New York. They look like they're incorporating multiple API's to bring in extra data: at least two interactive city maps (one modern, one from circa 1940), the Steve Morse / Joel Weintraub ED Finder information (via API, not external link), some New York Times headlines from April 2, 1940, Facebook/Twitter integration, Document Cloud integration, links directly to the correct ED page on the NARA site, and more. It's a really well thought-out site, and kind of a one-stop shop for those of us with New York City ancestors and relatives in the 1940 Census. Oh, and it's snappy-fast, too. The URL is http://directme.nypl.org/ . Kudos to the NYPL Labs team!

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    1. Second that shoutout, fantastic job NYPL Labs!!

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  3. I'm astonished that the NARA/Archives.com group has flopped on such a huge opportunity. Deeply disappointed that server load issues are killing what could be a remarkable milestone in data delivery. There are many many websites with top people who could have gotten them squared away ahead of time. So far the best answer I've seen is "testing said we could handle it." Something doesn't add up.

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    1. I agree 100%. as a technologist, I'm embarrassed. Looking forward to the 1950 release which will be downloaded at 12:01am directly into our brains.

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    2. I'm wondering if people who went to the NARA branches are having the exact same problem as we are? I'd have hated to have driven over to San Bruno, only to be sitting in front of a terminal watching "Loading" for hours. Is this on microfilm too?

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    3. Digital only. No microfilm this time.

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    4. Bet they're regretting that about right now!

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