Are there stories from your family history that get passed down from generation to generation? Do you know your family history? Where did your ancestors come from?

Me? I’m a mixed breed. I have Spanish, Mexican, English, and Welsh blood running through my veins. Add in my husband’s ancestors and my children also have Scottish and more English {think Pilgrims on the Mayflower English!} genes.

Why are we interested in our family history?

Why does anyone become interested in it?

Why is it so important?

In discovering our past – the skeletons in the closet {I’m descended from King Ferdinand but NOT Queen Isabella of Spain} as well as the heroes {a Spanish ‘pirate’ who rescued Spaniards stolen as slaves to be sold into Africa} we learn a little more about ourselves.

As anyone who has ever done genealogy knows, census records are a HUGE part of learning about your past. In the ‘olden’ days of genealogy people had to search microfilms on big cumbersome machines to find any sort of information about their ancestors. It would take hours upon hours searching through these films that were really just photographs of actual records. With the advance of better and better technology these records are becoming available online for anyone to search through but it requires what is called indexing. Done by thousands upon thousands of volunteers, indexing turns those records into searchable documents because the names and information are typed in and recorded digitally. Instead of scanning dozens of documents looking for a name, someone can type in the name and find those documents easily. What used to take months now only takes minutes.

In just two short weeks the National Archives and Records Administration {NARA} will release the 1940 US Census as free digital images. That’s great news! But they are still just images, like the old microfilms of the past.

Chances are you know someone who was living then. My husband’s paternal grandparents were married in August of 1940. When the census was taken his grandmother’s family was living in Chicago; his grandfather’s in the tiny town of Panaca, NV.

His maternal grandparents were living in Fallon, NV. While his mother wasn’t born until 1944,  most of her older siblings were alive when the census was taken.

My own grandmother was 16 when the census was taken. My other grandparents weren’t even in the United States at the time! We can’t wait to find out what information is included on those census records but until they are indexed it will be nigh onto impossible to find the right images.

And that’s where you and I come in! FamilySearch, Archives.com,  findmypast.com, and other genealogy organizations are teaming up in a joint initiative called the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project. They are trying to get a whole army of indexing volunteers to make the 1940 US Census searchable. Indexing is really fun. Bon Bon has been doing it for a couple of years – usually on those quiet Sunday afternoons. If you have a computer and a connection to the internet you can index. To learn more about how you can help visit The 1940 US Census Project, read articles on The 1940 Census Blog, and sign up to help when the census becomes available in just 14 days.

But wait! There’s more! They are having a contest for YOU. The contest will require you to download the FamilySearch Indexing software and complete a practice batch that will show you what it will be like to index the 1940 Census.  One entrant will be chosen at random to win a $100 Visa gift card and two entrants will be chosen to win $50 Visa gift cards. Pretty sweet deal! You can find more information on entering the contest on the blog post: Weekly Contest – Week of March 19.

So what do you say? Sign up to become a 1940 Census indexer. Make it a family affair. Be a part of history.

As part of the1940census.com ambassador program this blog post enters me into a drawing foran Amazon Kindle Fire.

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