Some time back, I posted to Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun about what I expected to find in the 1940 Census. Joel Weintraub from the website SteveMorse.org posted a comment about the different utilities they’ve created to assist people with searching the 1940 census. I decided to check it out to see if I could find the EDs for my Oakland relatives on E. 25th Street.
First, I went to the Obtaining EDs for the Census in One Step page. I followed these steps:
1. I selected the 1940 census for the drop down menu.
2. I selected the state: California
3. I selected the city: Oakland
4. I selected the street: 25th E (for East 25th)
Next it asks me for the cross street. I don’t know the streets of Oakland that well, so I searched for one of the addresses in Google Maps. Since my ancestors lived on almost the entire street, I picked an address closest to one end, 1948 E. 25th. The map showed me that the closest cross street is 19th Avenue.
5. Back to SteveMorse.org, I selected the street: 19th Av
The utility provided me with three enumeration districts: 61-188, 61-189, and 61-190.
For kicks, I redid the search and used the other cross street: 21st Avenue. With this combination, I got two enumeration districts: 61-189 and 61-190.
This is really going to cut down my census workload! I was thinking I would have to slog through many pages to find the streets where my people lived. I won’t have to do that now. I can refer to this utility and get the enumeration districts in advance. Now I can plan my attack!
Thanks to Joel for pointing out this nifty utility! It’s going to save so many genealogists so much time.
