The article below is from Eastman's Genealogy Newsletter. The records mentioned are at the LDS and the link provided takes you to the part of their catalog that accesses this census. NARA indexes the films they provide at their national research centers but the index may not yet be available from that resource. Eventually the LDS will have all of their digital records indexed but it may take a fairly long time for them to get to this particular census. Perhaps those who use this census at the LDS or other sites would be willing to index the few pages they use? If someone has any ideas about the best approach to that, please tell us about it. Karen ---------------------------------- March 02, 2010 1930 US Census Available Free of Charge on the Internet Archive (javascript:showOdiogoReadNowFrame ('270710', '1930 us census available free of charge on the internet archive', '0', 290, 55);) Here is a pleasant surprise: the Internet Archive is placing the 1930 U.S. Census online and is making it available at no charge. This is a "work in progress;" but, the census records from many states are available now, and the remaining states will be added in the near future. The records are offered in exactly the same format as the microfilms created by the U.S. Government. In fact, the online images appear to be copies of the microfilms. The images are being offered "as is." That is, there is no index available, only the images. If you already know where your ancestor lived and (hopefully) the enumeration district, you can view the images one at a time until you find the information you seek. You can find enumeration districts on FamilySearch at _http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=subjectdetails&s ubject=870702&subject_disp=Census+districts+-+United+States&columns=*,0,0_ (http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?dis play=subjectdetails&subject=870702&subject_disp=Census+districts+-+United+St ates&columns=*,0,0) . Once you know the enumeration district, return to the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/1930_census to conduct your search. If your ancestors lived in a small town, you can probably find them without determining an enumeration district in advance. However, for those who resided in cities, the enumeration district is a valuable piece of information that allows you to zoom in on the correct neighborhood quickly although you will still need to look at a lot of images to find what you seek. While it is nice to see a free version of the census available, I doubt if this will have much impact on the commercial companies that also offer census images online for a fee. The commercial companies have indexed most of their records, and finding someone in an index first is much, much easier than manually looking at hundreds of images in search of the right family. While I appreciate the free, unindexed images, I'll still gladly pay a few dollars a month to have an index available. I suspect most others will do the same, especially after trying to find someone in the free records. Of course, now is an excellent time for your genealogy society or historical society to index the records for your area and place your own index online, with each entry pointing to an original record on the Internet Archive. To find the 1930 U.S. Census records on the Internet Archive, start at: _http://www.archive.org/details/1930_census_ (http://www.archive.org/details/1930_census) to conduct your search. Posted by Dick Eastman on March 02, 2010 in _Online Sites_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/online_sites/) | _Permalink_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/03/1930-us-census-available-free-of- charge-on-the-internet-archive.html) Comments (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/03/1930-us-census-available-free-of-charge-on-the-internet-archive/comments/atom.xml) You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the _comment feed_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/03/1930-us-census-available-free-of-cha rge-on-the-internet-archive/comments/atom.xml) for this post. Dick, Remember that we have put online at stevemorse.org a geographical finder tool for finding people on the 1930 census. If one knows the location of the person, or better yet for cities of over 25,000 in 1930 their address, the Morse One Step site will narrow which census district the location is in, and often will provide a single district number. Look in the census folder on the site for applicable utilities and read the FAQ if confused about the choices. While I'm commenting on geographical tools, I want your readers to know that I've produced 3 different databases to make such searches feasible when the 1940 census opens in 2012... and it will open online... no film. I've transcribed over 150,000 census district correlates that convert a 1930 district number into a 1940 one. I've transcribed all the 1940 census district definitions (less large cities over 50,000) and shared that text file with the National Archives (that have proofed the file and will use it in their own index). That searchable definition file is online right now. And initially with the help of 74 volunteers, we did block indexes (to census district numbers) of all cities over 50,000 in 1940, and I've been adding smaller cities so that by this summer, I'll have all cities done over 25,000 and resources to do many more. Eventually, we may end up with about 600 urban areas that have such block indexes. Right now there are over 375 urban areas available on the Morse website for searching by address the 1940 census. Steve Morse has programmed search engines for these 3 databases, and these utilities are functional right now and available for free on the stevemorse.org site. Joel Weintraub _http://members.cox.net/census1940/_ (http://members.cox.net/census1940/) Posted by: _Joel Weintraub_ (http://members.cox.net/census1940/) | _March 03, 2010 at 02:14 AM_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/03/1930-us-census-available-fre e-of-charge-on-the-internet-archive.html?cid=6a00d8341c767353ef01310f574b24970c#comment-6a00d8341c767353ef01310f574b24970 c) Or you can identify the enumeration district by going to Steve Morse' One Step pages. To use his ED converter, you must know the street name. _http://stevemorse.org/census/index.html_ (http://stevemorse.org/census/index.html) Posted by: Darlene | _March 03, 2010 at 02:24 AM_ (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/03/1930-us-census-available-free-of-charge-on-th e-internet-archive.html?cid=6a00d8341c767353ef01310f575ab0970c#comment-6a00d 8341c767353ef01310f575ab0970c) Allen County Public Library has also begun uploading the Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards 1907-1933 (NARA M850) to the Internet Archive. Like the 1930 census, these records are copies of the NARA microfilms. The cards were filmed alphabetically, and the names found on each roll of film can be seen on the first roll. _http://www.archive.org/details/acpl_veteransadmin_01_reel01_ (http://www.archive.org/details/acpl_veteransadmin_01_reel01) It is also an on-going project, as of yesterday they had about 150 films completed.