Ancestry Library has finished uploading all of the 1940 Census images to its database. They are now working on indexing—at this posting, Delaware was finished and everything else is pending.
Meanwhile, you can find your relatives by browsing the right Enumeration District (ED).
An Enumeration District is a geographical area assigned to a census taker. City directories and other resources can help you determine your relative’s address during a census year. An Enumeration Map will tell you in which ED that address is located.
The Enumeration Districts for Davenport are ED 82-19 to ED 82-69 and ED 82-67. Institutions such as hospitals, orphanages and boarding schools had their own EDs.
On Monday morning, the first searches we tried (and were successful in downloading) were for the Iowa Soldier’s Orphan’s Home, AKA the Annie Wittenmyer Home (ED 82-51) and the Catholic orphanage in Davenport, St. Vincent’s Home (ED 82-36)
There were 559 children living at the Iowa Soldier’s Orphan’s Home and 56 at St. Vincent’s. In 1930, there were 598 children at Annie Wittenmyer and 96 children at St. Vincent’s. The census not only lists the orphaned children living in the home, but also employees, including teachers, caretakers and administrators.
Exciting stuff for historians and genealogists!
(posted by Cristina)
