Yesterday the post I wrote for the 1940 Census blog went live.
The blog is all about generating interest for when the 1940 census is made public on April 2nd. More about that on this post here. 🙂 Have you indexed? It is basically transcribing handwritten or typed images into digital images so they are searchable. My favorites so far have been draft cards – there were some fascinating questions in Ohio. All types of records are being indexed so they can be searchable for family history. I’ve always been a people watcher. I love the time period of the 40s – and I’ve been indexing for a few years and love that too. It kinda just all came together for me to be a blog ambassador for the 1940 Census Project. 🙂
Here are a few back-stage photos behind the post.
My cast of characters:
By characters, I mean characters:
The fun backdrop:
I imagined a 1940s radio for my little ones to dance by, but wasn’t able to find one in real life. That’s when I sketched one on a roll of butcher paper and hung it in our treehouse.
It works – and I think it’s kinda whimsically fun too. Don’t you love when things turn out even better than imagined?
Could not have pulled it off without my man and his skills:
Although we didn’t need it, he knows how to work the reflector too.
We got some great shots:
And lest you think the whole shoot was frosting and sprinkles, I captured this fine moment:
To make the post have a more 40s feel I turned the photos black and white. SO very fun.
Happy Indexing! 🙂
I’ve been dragging my feet about indexing. I keep thinking I need to do it, but never get around to calling the lady in our ward. They said once that we shouldn’t just sign up on-line because the stake wants to track everything done by stake members, but when I looked at the page you linked it said I could choose a group to be affiliated with. Does that mean I can sign up as a member of my stake? Do I need to keep putting off calling the lady? I just may take the leap!
And I love your post. This one and the one at the Census blog. So much fun! I always wish I could dance…
Yes! Do it!! 🙂 If you have already have an LDS account (for Ward websites or anything on LDS.org that requires a login) then you can use that. The username and password will sign you in after you download the indexing software. You do need to affiliate your Stake after you sign in – before you start indexing. I believe it’s under “my account” or “my profile” -something like that. :). If you don’t have an account you can sign up for one on the left hand side of the sign-in page of the indexing software and then specify Stake. So just download it and go for it. 🙂 We signed up a few years ago and I don’t remember all the details. Jim Bob signed our 11 year old up about a month ago. He said if you have any questions along the way to give him a call and he’ll walk you through it. You can specify Stake and ward even. Sometimes here they have friendly races between the wards. Our ward representative works at the chocolate shop in town so the prizes are always tasty. 😉
I love this post! It’s been so fun to read all the posts about the 1940s. It’s one of my favorite time periods too. I love to index as well. I’ve done quite a lot of Texas birth records lately, but I switch to Ireland wills (which are all typed) when I just can’t take the handwriting any more! I wonder how the census will be to read.
Anyway, I loved both your posts and it’s fun to find another young mom who is into all this stuff! I’m going to use your idea of listening to 40s music while indexing. My kids will love that. We swing a lot around here!
So good to “meet” you Kristiana!