Are you ready for the 1940 census?

Can you feel the excitement in the air?  It's been ten years since genealogists have had a new U.S. census to play with.  On April 2, 2012, less than three months from now, the 1940 census will be released to the public, and everyone is rarin' to go.  It will already be digital, so there won't be a delay while everything is being scanned, and it will be available on several genealogy sites.

But there's a catch.  The 1940 census has absolutely no index.  At least with 1930 some of the states had been indexed during WPA.  This time we all start from scratch.  How will we find the people we're looking for?

Enter Steve Morse and Joel Weintraub.  They have been working for several years on finding aids for the 1940 census, and over the past couple of years have been speaking to many genealogical societies about the tools that are available on the Steve Morse One-Step Website.

In the San Francisco Bay area, we're fortunate to have Steve Morse as a resident.  He is also a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society (SFBAJGS).  And he was generous enough to allow us to schedule him to speak about the 1940 census at all three of our meeting locations.  First up is Rhoda Goldman Plaza in San Francisco, on January 22.  The doors will open at 1:00 p.m., and the talk will begin at 1:30.  This is a new location and time for our San Francisco meetings.  One of the rules of the new venue is that no outside food or drink may be brought in.

On February 12 Steve will give his 1940 census talk at the Oakland Family History Center.  The doors will open at 12:30 p.m., and the talk will begin at 1:00.   We also get a bonus in Oakland.  Steve will be premiering a new talk about the ketubah, the Jewish marriage contract.

And on February 13, Steve will be in Los Altos Hills at Congregation Beth Am.  There the doors open at 7:00 p.m., and the talk begins at 7:30.

For more details about the SFBAJGS meetings, visit our calendar at http://www.jewishgen.org/sfbajgs/calendar.html.  To see where else Steve Morse will be speaking, look at his schedule (at the bottom of the page).  Unsurprisingly, most of his 2012 talks so far are on the 1940 census.