Curious?

The 1940 census records are now released and ready to index.  🙂  Hoo-ray!!!

Are you curious where we’ve started indexing?  Jim Bob is working on Kansas records (because they are highest priority) and I have a batch of records from New Hampshire.  (I’ve always liked states that started with New.)  I’m excited for when more Western States are added.

Are you curious how you can help?  Sign up to be an indexer here:  1940 Census Project.

Curious about this week’s contest?  Here are the details from the site – Weekly Contest – Week of April 2:

{  If you haven’t already, you must first visit the Games and Prizes page of the 1940 Blog to register for all project contests.  Then, follow the additional steps below to qualify for this week’s prize.

 Start Indexing the 1940 U.S. Census:

• If you haven’t already, download the indexing software.
• Complete at least one 1940 U.S. Census batch by Sunday, April 8 11:59 p.m. MST.

That’s all you have to do!  If you need a little help, check out this video about how to index the 1940 U.S. Census. One qualified entrant will be chosen at random to win an Amazon Kindle Fire.  }

I can personally let you know that the contests work.  I won a $50 Visa gift card last week… how fun is that?

To encourage your curiosity here is a little history.

Curious George (one of my very favorite books) was first published in 1941.  It is written by a husband/wife team:  H.A. and Margret Rey.  Although for a while only H.A. received credit because they wanted to distinguish themselves from the many female authors of children’s books at the time.  H. A. and Margret both grew up as Jews in Germany.  They later met in Brazil – H.A. was working there as a salesman and Margret had moved to Brazil to escape Nazism.  (Although some sources say they knew each other in Germany before and Hans originally met Margret as a young girl when she slid down the banister in her family’s home.  I kinda like that story.)  They married in Brazil and had two pet monkeys.  They moved to Paris in 1935 and wrote stories together.

In June 1940 the couple fled Paris on bicycles H.A. had made with spare parts.  While he assembled the bikes, Margret gathered their manuscripts and drawings.  They left Paris just a few hours before it fell to Nazi Germany.  They took the transcript of Curious George with them.  They returned to Brazil and then continued onto New York City, where Curious George was published a year later.  I didn’t know any of that history until I started looking for information about Curious George – knowing that it was one of the most popular children’s books in the 1940s.

I can definitely see why.  Who doesn’t know a young child that acts so similar to George?  That child-like innocence and curious nature are embodied in that little monkey.  I have also always loved the illustrations!

So carefree… always.

And oh-so-curious.

The floating over the city picture has always been one of my favorites.

Nothing like a friend in a yellow hat… and a happy ending.

(for now… they did publish 7 Curious George books.  😉 )

Did you know that there was actually a book by the Reys that came out before Curious George that featured him?  It was published in France and he was known as Fifi.  It was later published in the U.S.   Curious?  I’ll show photos tomorrow.

In the meantime… happy indexing!  🙂

{As part of the1940census.com ambassador program this blog post enters me into a drawing for a yeti microphone or gift cards.}