Sitting Up with the Dead

Explore the year 1940 through information taken in the 1940 Census. The second program in the library’s “Sitting Up with the Dead” series is set for Friday, July 20, from 6 to 11 p.m.

The program will be held in The Heritage Room on the third floor of the main library, 915 Monroe St. Admission cost of $22.50 per person includes a box meal. The cost is $15 without meal. Participants are also free to bring meals with them. Deadline for purchasing tickets that include a meal is Wednesday, July 18. The final program for the year will be Friday, October 19,with the same hours and ticket prices.  

Richard White, interim/acting manager of The Heritage Room, will discuss “Using the 1940 Census.”

Many of the questions on the 1940 Census are the standard ones: name, age, gender, and race, education, and place of birth. But the 1940 Census also goes further. The instructions ask the enumerator to enter a circled X after the name of the person furnishing the information about the family; whether the person worked for the CCC, WPA, or NYA the week of March 24-30, 1940 and income for the 12 months ending December 31, 1939. The 1940 also has a supplemental schedule for two names on each page. The supplemental schedule asks the place of birth of the person's father and mother, and the person's usual occupation, not just what they were doing the week of March 24-30, 1940. For all women who are or have been married, it asks if the woman has been married more than once and the age at first marriage.

The 1940 Census was taken in April 1940 (official date was April 1, though entries were recorded throughout early April). The federal government requires a census to be taken once every ten years for the apportionment of members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The first census was taken in 1790. Over the years, the format of census schedules changed and more questions were asked. The census reflects economic tumult of the Great Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal recovery program of the 1930s. Between 1930 and 1940, the population of the continental United States increased 7.2% to 131,669,275. The territories of Alaska, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, the Panama Canal, and the American Virgin Islands comprised 2,477,023 people.

Census records are just one aspect of the vast store of information found in the library's Heritage Room and Archives. And now this department will be able to serve patrons better thanks to a couple of recent grants.

With the combination of monies received through a Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Alabama Public Library Service and matching funds from the library, the library bought a state-of-the-art ScanPro 800 microfilm/fiche/scanner. Not only can patrons print copies of such items as documents, records and newspapers, but they also can scan and download images to a flash drive, White said.

Selected local history records in the Heritage Room are entering the digital age thanks to the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. The group awarded a $4,000 Special Projects Grant to the Huntsville Library Foundation. The local Hunt’s Spring DAR Chapter sponsored this grant and matched it dollar for dollar. The chapter’s contribution was part of a generous bequest received from a member who was a longtime library volunteer. The library system also provided funding for the project.

Early church records, Huntsville City Council minutes (1828-1946), and 1865 Census data from the Freedmen’s Bureau on 19 rolls of microfilm have been digitized, producing more than 12,800 images, according to Susanna Leberman of the Archives department. The next step, transcribing the digital images, is ongoing. The grant paid for a historian, Elisabeth Spalding, to format the newly digitized records.

To look at the images and transcripts side by side, access one of the images at http://digitalarchives.hmcpl.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16458coll2/id/1/rec/31, then click “View Image & Text.” The transcript, where available, will appear to the left of the image.  For more Heritage Room information, call 256-532-5969.