Welcome to our tutorial/quiz, whether you are a seasoned family history researcher or just here to see the 1940 census form for your family.
If you want to start using the One-Step 1940 Census tools immediately, go to our
Unified 1940 Census ED Finder. That will provide you access to our most popular tools on a single page.
If you want to learn about all of our 1940 Census tools (as well as those provided by the National Archives) and determine which is best in
your situation, then this tutorial is for you.
We don't have any name indexes for the 1940 census here. In fact, at present nobody has a 1940 name index.
But what we do have are tools to help you find people in the census based on where they lived. This quiz will help
you determine which tools you need to use for your particular circumstance.
Knowing a person's address in 1940 is not sufficient for finding them in the census. Instead you must know
the so-called Enumeration District (ED) in which they lived. So what is an Enumeration District?
The 1940 census is divided into EDs. The EDs are numbered. Within each state, each ED has a unique number.
That number consists of two parts -- the first part specifying a region (typically a county)
within the state and the second part specifying a district within that region. Once you have the ED number, you will be
able to access the 1940 population census pages.
Keep in mind that the ED number will get you to the image of the first census page for that ED.
Once you are there, you will need to step through the other images for that ED looking for the
family that you are interested in.
Click here when you are ready to begin
Do you know the city, town, rural area, or institution in which your family lived on April 1, 1940 -- the official 1940 census day?
Yes, I know where they were in April 1940.
No, I have no clue where they lived.
So you don't know where your family lived in April 1940. Here are some suggestions to help you find
their location.
Look for any of the following. They can give you clues as to where the family lived.
Address Books
Birth/Death/Marriage Certificates
City Directories and Telephone Directories
Diaries
Employment Records
Letters, Envelopes, and other Correspondence
Local Newspapers
Naturalization Records
Photographs
Relatives
School and Church Records
Scrapbooks
Social Security Application (program started in mid 1930s)
Their 1930 ED Location if They Haven't Moved in the Intervening Years
WW2 Draft Registrations
Learning locational strategies for searching censuses should be in every genealogist's toolbox.
It will be helpful whenever name indexes don't work. It will also help you determine if the enumerator
skipped the residence. And it will be the only way to access censuses that have no name index,
as will be the case for the 1940 census when it opens.
Did that help you find your 1940 location?
Still nothing, I really tried.
Yes, now I have the location, thanks.
OK.... you may need to wait about six months after the opening of the 1940 census for a full name index.
Perhaps a new strategy will suggest itself for finding those locations in the intervening time.
You could look through all 3.8 million 1940 census images if you have lots and lots
and lots of free time. You might get lucky and find your family on the first image!
However, if you have that much free time, consider instead volunteering for some of our
census projects!
You know the location of your family in 1940.
That's great! You are ahead of the game and shouldn't have to wait for a full name index.
Did the family move between 1930 and 1940?
No, they stayed put.
Yes, they moved.
I don't know.
Are you willing to do a little extra work now so that there will be fewer 1940 EDs
for you to search through when you get to the census?
Sure, I've got plenty of time now.
No, I'm busy now but will have time when the census is available.
OK, we'll try to make things simple for you. Do you have the 1930 ED number?
Yes, I've already done my homework.
No, how do I find it?
Do you have the 1930 census sheet for this family?
Yes, I'm looking at it right now.
No, I couldn't find it.
So you have the 1930 census sheet.
Look at the top right of that sheet and it will give you the 1930 ED number.
Now do you have the 1930 ED number?
No, it was smudged.
Yes, it was just where you said it would be (of course it was).
OK then, let's not worry about 1930 (even computers can change their minds).
You know where your family was in 1940. Were they
in a rural area or a small urban community of fewer than 5,000 people?
in an urban area of 5,000 people or more?
in an institution (hospital, jail, orphanage, military, CCC, etc)?
outside the U.S. proper but under U.S. jurisdiction?
So your family was in an institution. I hope they weren't in a prison. ;-)
You are actually in luck because almost all institutional names are searchable on the
One Step ED Definition Tool.
Many of these institutions were given separate ED numbers, and include
Apartment complexes with 100 or more units in cities having 500,000 people or more
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camps
Coast Guard stations
Federal and state prisons
Institutions with 100 or more inmates
Lighhouses and lightships
Mental institutions
Military and Naval Bases
National Parks
Reformatories
Roman Catholic institutions with 25 or more residents
Veterans' Hospital
If you can't find your institution by using the
One Step ED Definition Tool,
you'll have to find the ED some other way. But when you do find the ED, you might
be able to spot the institution quickly because it stands out by starting on a
separate page in the census. These are referred to as "show separately" institutions, and include
Apartment complexes from 49 to 99 units in cities having 500,000 people or more
Islands
Non-Roman Catholic institutions having fewer than 100 inmates
Roman Catholic institutions having fewer than 25 residents
Unincorporated places having 100 or more people
The U.S. has a number of possessions and those were enumerated in 1940.
Here is a list of those covered
Alaska
American Samoa
Guam
Hawaii
Panama Canal Zone
Puerto Rico
Virgin Islands
Military & Consulate Services Abroad
Naval Services Abroad Or In Area Waters But Not At A Fixed Station
There is nothing different about finding a family in one of these US possessions than in finding
them in the U.S. proper. Two cities in the possessions, Honolulu and San Juan, fall within our
definition of "urban areas of 5,000 people or more" and are covered in our
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool.
The other locations in these possessions probably fall within our "rural area or small urban
community" category. Or your family location could also fall into the "institution" category.
So go back to the previous page and select the appropriate choice.
So your family was in a rural area or small urban community in 1940.
In this case we are going to be looking through the ED definitions for the ED number of your location.
Let's see what we can expect to find when we search through those definitions.
For rural areas, the ED definitions might show political names of communities, townships,
or election districts.
For small urban areas that are composed of only a few EDs, the ED definitions might show
which side of the town the ED is on. Hopefully your family was on the "right side" of the town.
Unincorporated communities of 100 or more people in 1940 will appear in the ED definitions.
How much information do you have?
I only know the state and county in which my family lived.
I have the name of the rural area or small town in which my family lived.
You found your institution or community name on the
One Step ED Definition Tool
but want to confirm the ED number.
When you got your results from the
One Step ED Definition Tool,
did you notice that the next-to-last column was labelled "Details"? There is a link in that column called "view". If you click on
the "view" link, you will see an image of the original ED description of your ED. Your location will
probably be included in the ED's description. That will confirm that you have the right ED number.
We have other ways of giving you a second opinion, but this is the most powerful and easiest way of
checking your results.
Congratulation, you have your ED number. Use it wisely.
Now that you've obtained your ED number, you can start looking through the images of the census pages for
that ED. If you have an address, it's quicker to look for street names than for surnames. The street
names are shown vertically in the first column.
If you can rotate the images clockwise by 90 degrees, it will make it easier to read the street names, allowing you
to go even quicker through the images. The image viewer will probably provide such a rotational capability.
As you go through the images of your ED, don't be surprised to see gaps in the written page numbers. The census
takers would start numbering the pages as 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc. After they completed a first pass, they went back to
visit those houses for which no one was home. The names that they obtained on this second pass would appear on pages
starting with 61A. In addition the names of people in temporary housing (camps, Hoovervilles, flophouses, etc.) would
appear on pages starting with 81A.
Your family was in a rural area or small urban community and you know only the state and county names
where they lived.
You can find all the enumeration districts that are in that county by searching through
the ED definitions at the
One Step ED Definition Tool.
So go to the One Step ED Definition Tool,
select the state and the county,
and note all the ED numbers that are returned. You will have to look through all the census images
(when they become available) of each of those EDs to find your family.
Don't have the patience for that?
Then you may want to wait for a full name index, which may not be available until about six months
after the opening of the census.
Your family was in a rural area or small urban community and you know its name.
You can find the enumeration district or districts for that location by searching through
the ED definitions at One Step ED Definition Tool.
So go to the One Step ED Definition Tool,
select the state and the county,
and enter the name of the location in the keyword field.
There will probably be a very small number of ED numbers,
so you should have no trouble going through the census images for those EDs when the images become
available.
So how are you doing so far?
Darn, can't find the name of my location on your tool.
I've found my ED number. I'm satisfied.
I've found my ED number but I would like a second opinion.
So you couldn't find your community or institution name using the
One Step ED Definition Tool.
The community or institution might be too small to appear in the definitions.
However, you might have misspelled the name.
Try entering just a part of the name and see if you find anything.
You might also try entering only the state and county, and look through the
resulting ED definitions to see if a variation of your name appears.
If that doesn't work, you might want to look at the ED maps.
The National Archives
has ED maps of counties that you can navigate through using our
One Step 1940 ED Map Viewer.
The county map often shows unincorporated communities of fewer than 100 people
which the ED definitions do not.
Hopefully the ED map for your area exists, is legible, has readable ED numbers, and is not too confusing.
The original maps used colors to make it easy to distinguish the various districts,
but unfortunately the colors are not present in the online images.
Assuming you have tried the above suggestions, how is your progress going?
Thanks, I now have ED number, but want to be sure of it and get a second opinion.
Sorry to bother you again, but I just can't find my location or institution using your hints,
and the maps are not helpful or applicable.
Don't be sorry. The census was never designed for genealogists, nor did the planners ever think
we would want to do so many searches for individual names in it.
We hope that you are more successful with your other addresses.
However, are you sure you are in the right county? You might want to verify that by using our
One Step Counties Tool.
You may have to look through all
the census images for the 1940 EDs in the county. Those ED numbers are found using the 1940
One Step ED Definition Tool.
Or you may decide to wait for a full name index that may take about
six months to complete after the opening of the census.
I would like more information on using the One Step 1930 to 1940
ED Number Conversion Tool.
So, your family lived in an urban area having 5,000 people or more. Do you know their street address?
I sure do.
I'm afraid not.
So, your family lived in an urban area having 5,000 people or more. Do you know their street address?
I sure do.
I'm afraid not.
Having their address should make things much easier.
Let's see if it is in one of the cities covered in
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool.
Go to this tool, select the state or possession, and look in the city dropdown box.
Do you see your city listed there?
No, it's not there.
Yes, it's there. You must have been busy!
You don't have an address for your family. That makes things difficult.
Here are your choices
Use the One Step ED Definition Tool
and choose the state, perhaps the county, and enter the name of your
city or town.
Write down all the ED numbers that are in that community, and go
through all the corresponding census
images when they becomes available. Unfortunately, the number of EDs
for large cities makes searching them
impractical. Los Angeles for example, has 1300 EDs and at least
36,000 pages of census forms.
Perhaps instead of a specific address, you know an area of the city
your family may have lived in. You could use the
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool,
find your city, and pick some intersections in that section of the city, enter those streets, and get
some EDs to search. There is also a way of using Census Tract maps for finding EDs of an area in large
cities, and those maps are easy to work with.
Wait for a full name index to come online.
I would like more information on using the Census Tract Maps for
finding an area's EDs.
You are here because your city/town is not on the
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool although you do have an address.
Perhaps you'd like to volunteer to add that city to our collection of cities covered by this tool.
Don't fret -- all is not yet lost. We are just getting started.
The Large City ED Finder Tool covers all cities having 25,000 people or more (and many more below this mark), thus your location must be smaller than 25,000.
Or perhaps we made an error, in which case we want to hear about it. (You might check the
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool
at a later time to see if we have added your city.)
EDs in cities of up to 50,000 people in 1940 are defined on the original National Archives' films by their
street names, political lines, or other features (such as railroad tracks, creeks, rivers, etc) that are
on the boundaries of the ED.
The definitions do not show the internal street names, so searching for streets on the
One Step ED Definition Tool
for your address probably won't work. In addition, your internal street could be a boundary street for a different ED in that area,
and unless you map those boundaries, you won't know you have the wrong ED and will waste time looking for your family on that ED.
Another approach is to look at the ED maps.
The National Archives
has ED maps that you can navigate through using our
One Step 1940 ED Map Viewer.
Hopefully the ED map for your area exists, is legible, has readable ED numbers, and is not too confusing.
The original maps used colors to make it easy to distinguish the various districts,
but unfortunately the colors are not present in the online images.
Note that many large city maps do not include the first part of the ED number.
Did you find your ED from the National Archives' ED map collection?
No, my town's/city's map is missing or is not useful.
Yes, I'm a happy camper.
Yes, I now have my ED but I want a second opinion.
You are here because your town/city is not on the
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool,
and the NARA ED map for the community is either missing or not useful.
You've already told me that you have a 1940 address. I remembered that.
Can you find that address on one of the online mapping websites?
No, I don't see the address. What happened?
Yes, it's there.
(Be careful: the city may have renumbered the houses and the current map will place you
in a different part of town
from where your original address was located.)
Your 1940 address is not on an online mapping website.
Hmmmm..... perhaps they changed the street name, or renumbered it, or the street is now under a freeway
or within a park, or the mapping website is at fault (try using a different online mapping website).
The One Step Street Name-Change Tool shows street name changes
and some house renumbering for many US cities;
check to see if your street name has changed and/or if your house has been renumbered.
Here are other ideas for finding a "lost" street. City directories often have cross street indexes;
find your street name in the directory and note the cross streets. It is unlikely all of those streets
are gone, unless they are under a large housing project or within the boundaries of a park.
Ask a reference librarian and she/he might be able to track down a circa 1940 map of your area which
shows your street. Contact the historical society of that city for information.
If you can't resolve this problem, you might have to go through all the census images for all
the EDs in your town or city.
Use the One Step ED Definition Tool
to find all the ED numbers for your town or city.
Did this help you figure out where your street went and what its new name is,
or at least the area of the city it was in?
Yes it did.
No it didn't.
So your 1940 address appears in the right place on a modern map.
But you can't find your city on the
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool,
and you don't have a useful ED map.
Your city probably had fewer than 25,000 people in 1940.
I hope you are good at reading maps.
If not, you may have to wait for a full name index or go through all the census images for all the EDs
in this city, one at a time.
If you want to try reading maps, here is what you need to do.
Using a current map from one of the mapping websites,
find your 1940 street address and center it on the screen.
Reduce the size of the map so you can see a large area but don't reduce it so much that can't
read all the street names.
For each ED definition for this town/city obtained from the
One Step ED Definition Tool,
mentally plot the indicated north/south/east/west boundaries on your screen.
Keep doing this mental mapping until you find an ED whose boundaries enclose
your family's location.
It's not terribly difficult to do this, just time consuming.
Have you found the ED # of your address by plotting the boundary definitions for that area?
Yes, I'm satisfied, thanks.
Yes, but I want to confirm that ED number result and get a second opinion.
You've already selected your state and city, so now you need to select the street at which your family
lived. This will give you a list of all EDs that that street passes through. You can narrow down
this list of EDs by selecting additional street names on the same block as your family's residence. See the
FAQ associated with this tool for further help.
Have you now found your ED number?
Yes but I want a second opinion.
I appreciate your efforts and ingenuity but I really don't trust you or your data.
I couldn't find the ED number and am starting to say unkind words about you
because nothing is working and I am questioning your intelligence.
("Hey, I'm just a computer program but I have feelings!")
You are here because you've already found your ED number and you want a second opinion.
You want to be sure you have the right
ED number for your family's location before you spend the time looking through the actual census images.
We present four methods here, but one might be all you need to satisfy yourself.
So which of the following would you like?
A strategy for using the NARA original film description for
your ED to see if your location is included within that description.
A strategy for finding ED numbers from the
One Step 1930 to 1940 ED Number Conversion Tool
regardless of whether you have the 1930 ED number and regardless of where the family was in 1930.
This strategy is good for all 1940 ED searches.
A strategy for finding ED numbers from Census Tract maps for the largest cities
and urban areas. This will probably get you several 1940 EDs, including the ED number you already have.
A strategy for finding ED numbers from the National Archives' ED map library.
You are here because our
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool
is not being kind to you. It is not displaying any EDs for the set of streets that you've selected,
or you can't even find your street names on the city name list.
If your street names didn't show up on the Large City ED Finder Tool, it's possible
they were not within the city boundaries in 1940. Check the city boundaries in 1940 by looking at the 1940 ED map on the
One Step 1940 ED Map Viewer
to see if your streets are within the city. If they weren't, look at the county resources we have for finding EDs.
However, the problem could be an error in our transcribed data. Sometimes a specific street
name was not transcribed for an ED, or the street name was transcribed but misspelled. Both
of these errors will prevent our
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool
from finding certain blocks. If you encounter a situation in which
you obtain no EDs after entering all the boundary streets for your block, or you can't even find your
street on the street name list and it's within the 1940 city limits, please send us the specific example.
We'll examine it, and if we determine that it is occurring because we have a missing or misspelled street,
we will fix the problem.
Here's a work-around you can try in the meantime. You have a list of streets that you've selected,
which correspond to the block on which your famiy lived. Remove one or more of the streets, including the
address street, until you obtain some EDs. Try different sets of boundary streets. By experimenting
you'll be able to narrow your location down to a small number of EDs. Although that's not as good as
having a single ED, it's better than having none.
Once you've obtain a list of possible EDs, you should look at the
list of streets within each of them. You do that by clicking on a specific ED (each ED is a button).
The street list may help you determine which ED is the most likely one to contain your address.
It can also help you detect misspellings in the street names.
You may also narrow down the list of possible EDs by looking at the actual ED descriptions contained
on NARA microfilm. There you can see if a street name has been missed in the transcription.
You may also see that your block doesn't have a street as one of the boundaries but a creek or railroad track or political line.
Has this helped?
Yes, I now have my ED. Thanks.
I now have a few ED possibilities for my family location and want to see
the original ED descriptions contained on the NARA microfilm in order to narrow down my choices.
The above is not my problem. Please suggest something else.
Here are two more methods for finding ED numbers for locations.
Which of the following would you like?
A strategy for finding ED numbers from Census Tract maps (for the largest cities
and urban areas only). This will probably give you several 1940 EDs, all of which you will
have to search through.
A strategy for finding ED numbers from the
One Step 1930 to 1940 ED Number Conversion Tool
regardless of whether you have the 1930 ED number and regardless of where the family was in 1930.
This may give give you several 1940 EDs (but fewer than you would have obtained from the
Census Tract Maps), all of which you will have to search through.
Words of advice and encouragement if nothing has gone right for you so far.
Here's a strategy for using Census Tracts for large cities and urban areas to find 1940 EDs.
Census Tracts are not EDs.
They are large subdivisions of major cities and urban areas set up for statistical analysis.
Tract maps for many large cities (including smaller ones within
major metropolitan areas) are on the Indiana University Library
website and are accessible through our Census
Tracts tool.
Look at your city's tract map and find the number of the tract(s) that contains your address or location.
You might have to use a contemporary map of the city as a reference.
Now go to the
One Step ED Definition Tool,
select the state and the county, and enter tract X in the keyword field
(where X is the tract number that you found on the map).
The tool will return all EDs (perhaps half a dozen) that have that tract number in their definition.
Make sure you look at the tract numbers for your specific city only.
You have now reduced the ED choices to just a handful.
As a check, your previous ED number from another tool should be one of those shown with this strategy.
For those who did not have an ED number before, you may have to go through the census images of all
the ED numbers returned by the tract strategy to find your family.
Here's a strategy using the ED maps.
The National Archives
has ED maps that you can navigate through using our
One Step 1940 ED Map Viewer.
Hopefully the ED map for your area exists, is legible, has readable ED numbers, and is not too confusing.
The original maps used colors to make it easy to distinguish the various districts,
but unfortunately the colors are not present in the online images.
Note that many large city maps do not include the first part of the ED number.
Here's a strategy using the NARA microfilm series 1224 ED descriptions for checking your results.
We expect once you know about this, you will use it frequently.
First let's mention why you would want to see those descriptions as opposed to the ED definitions
that you would see with our
One Step ED Definition Tool.
We indeed used the NARA microfilm descriptions to produce our definitions for all areas having fewer
than 50,000 people.
For urban areas having more than 50,000 people, the descriptions on the NARA microfilm show the
streets on the north, east, south, and west side of each block within each ED. These descriptions
could be quite lengthy and were not included in the definitions displayed by our
One Step ED Definition Tool.
Instead that tool
shows political definitions of those EDs. The reason we did this is because we have those
cities covered by our
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool.
But now you might want to see that additional information to check to see if your ED location is included in the
microfilm's ED description. You can get to the NARA microfilm ED descriptions from either the
One Step ED Definition Tool
or the One Step Large City ED Finder Tool.
Here's how you get to the NARA microfilm ED descriptions from the
One Step ED Definition Tool.
From the state list, select the state that your location is in. Leave the county-selection set to
"All Counties." And select your ED from the ED list. Then press the Search button. Our description
of that ED will appear. And one of the columns (labelled "Details" on that description line is a link to "view" the
microfilm ED description. Click it and you will see the microfilm image description for your ED.
Here's how you get to the NARA microfilm ED descriptions from the
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool.
After you've entered your information
(state, city, streets) into that tool, you will be presented with a list of possible EDs. If there is
only one ED in the list, you will also be presented with the same result line that you would have
obtained from our
One Step ED Definition Tool.
As above, you can click
on the "view" link on the result line in order to see the microfilm image description for your ED.
If there is more than one ED in the list, click on the ED you are interested in (each ED is a button).
When you do so you will obtain a list of streets within the ED, and you will also be presented with
the same result line that you would have
obtained from our
One Step ED Definition Tool.
And, again, you can
click on the "view" link on the result line to see the image description for your ED.
Here's a strategy for finding 1940 EDs by location using information from 1930 tools and
One Step 1930 to 1940 ED Number Conversion Tool.
But first let's make sure you got here for the right reasons.
You have the 1930 ED number and the family is at the same address in 1940.
You've already found the 1940 ED by some other method and would like a second opinion.
You were unable to find the 1940 ED by using the other methods.
The One Step 1930 to 1940 ED Number Conversion Tool
is not recommended if you know that the family hasn't moved and you know the 1930 location,
but you don't yet know the 1930 ED number. This is especially true for large cities.
It would be as much effort to obtain the 1930
ED number (that you would need first in order to do the conversion) by our location tools
than it would be to obtain the 1940 ED number directly.
There is a disadvantage to using the
One Step 1930 to 1940 ED Number Conversion Tool,
for large urban areas.
For rural areas, the ED number of a location often doesn't change between census years.
But for urban areas there can be large changes in the ED number for a given street address, and in
fact the area contained in a 1930 ED can end up in multiple 1940 EDs. In such cases, using the
One Step 1930 to 1940 ED Number Conversion Tool
will leave you with many possible 1940 EDs for your location
whereas the One Step Large City ED Finder Tool
can often get you down to a single 1940 ED.
There are three ways to use the One Step 1930 to 1940 ED Number Conversion Tool.
Your family hasn't moved between 1930 and 1940, and you know the 1930 ED number.
You can use the conversion tool to find the 1940 ED number(s).
Your family has moved but you know the 1940 address, and it is in one of the over 400 cities
covered by the
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool for 1930.
In this case you will obtain the 1930 ED number of your 1940 address using the
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool for 1930,
and then convert that 1930 ED number to a 1940 ED number(s) using the
One Step 1930 to 1940 ED Number Conversion Tool.
But this might not work for all 1940 addresses and it will not work for those urban areas not covered
in the One Step Large City ED Finder Tool for 1930.
Be aware that the first part of the ED number for some large cities changed from 1930 to 1940.
Your family has moved but you know the 1940 address, and it is in a city we don't cover on our
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool for 1930,
or it is in a rural area or perhaps it is an institution.
In this case you will obtain the 1930 ED number of your 1940 location using the
One Step ED
Definition Tool, then
convert that 1930 ED number to a 1940 ED number(s) using the
One Step 1930 to 1940 ED Number Conversion Tool.
However, this may involve substantial work to come up with the
correct 1930 ED number, especially for smaller urban areas whose EDs are defined by boundary features.
If you found the ED # of the location from the above, then do you:
feel confident with this method and want to stop?
want to confirm that ED number result and get a second opinion?
I guess you are having a problem. Sorry about that. Let me make some suggestions.
First, you may have to wait for a name index to become available if you cannot use locational tools. Ancestry.com announced they would make their
name index free through 2013, and the FamilySearch group is also planning to produce a free name index for the 1940 census, once it becomes public. It
may take a number of months before a complete name index is done after the census goes online.
However, let me suggest some things you can do for your locational search. You could read the FAQ section of the
One Step Large City ED Finder.
That might suggest alternative ways of attacking your problem and the assumptions behind our locational searches.
If you haven't already done so, you might want to look at the ED maps.
The National Archives
has ED maps that you can navigate through using our
One Step 1940 ED Map Viewer.
Hopefully the ED map for your area exists, is legible, has readable ED numbers, and is not too confusing.
The original maps used colors to make it easy to distinguish the various districts,
but unfortunately the colors are not present in the online images.
Note that many large city maps do not include the first part of the ED number.
If you feel an error has been made using our location search tools, contact us and we will
see if the problem is in the search code,
the original data, or our transcription process, and we will try to correct the error.
If you've found some other strategy that worked for you, you might want to suggest it to us
and we will include it on this tutorial/quiz.
Good luck with your searches, and remember to get your ED numbers early to avoid
the expected crunch on the One Step website and the National Archives' website in April 2012.
Here's a strategy for using the ED descriptions contained on NARA microfilm in order to narrow down a list of possible EDs.
First let's mention why you would want to see those descriptions as opposed to the ED definitions
that you would see with our
One Step ED Definition Tool.
We indeed used the NARA microfilm descriptions to produce our definitions for all areas having fewer
than 50,000 people.
For urban areas having more than 50,000 people, the descriptions on the NARA microfilm show the
streets on the north, east, south, and west side of each block within each ED. These descriptions
could be quite lengthy and were not included in the definitions displayed by our
One Step ED Definition Tool.
Instead that tool
shows political definitions of those EDs. The reason we did this is because we have those
cities covered by our
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool.
But now you might want to see that
additional information. You can get to the NARA microfilm ED descriptions from either the
One Step ED Definition Tool
or the One Step Large City ED Finder Tool.
Here's how you get to the NARA microfilm ED descriptions from the
One Step ED Definition Tool.
From the state list, select the state that your location is in. Leave the county-selection set to
"All Counties." And select your ED from the ED list. Then press the Search button. Our description
of that ED will appear. And one of the columns (labelled "Details") on that description line is a link to "view" the original
microfilm ED description. Click it and you will see the microfilm image description for your ED.
Here's how you get to the NARA microfilm ED descriptions from the
One Step Large City ED Finder Tool.
After you've entered your information
(state, city, streets) into that tool, you will be presented with a list of possible EDs. If there is
only one ED in the list, you will also be presented with the same result line that you would have
obtained from our
One Step ED Definition Tool.
As above, you can click
on the "view" link on the result line in order to see the microfilm image description for your ED.
If there is more than one ED in the list, click on the ED you are interested in (each ED is a button).
When you do so you will obtain a list of streets within the ED, and you will also be presented with
the same result line that you would have
obtained from our
One Step ED Definition Tool.
And, again, you can
click on the "view" link on the result line to see the image description for your ED.
Once you have the ED description image from the NARA microfilms, find the blocks that have some of
your street names, noting on which side of the block they are found. Perhaps you will discover that
one of the street names you are using for your family's block has been changed since 1940. Another
possibility is that one of the boundaries of the block is not even a street name but a creek or political
boundary or even a Railroad track. That should help in determing which ED contains your family's location.
