FGS Day 3! Caffeine I.V. Please!

I refuse to give up on my goal of blogging for each day of the conference! It is still day three, and I am here....panting....frantically trying to make this happen! However, it will be a short one folks as my caffeine is wearing off. Each evening I have managed to get this done by having tea in the hotel room - which is not smart under normal circumstances - but let's hear it for strong tea! (And maybe a bite of dark chocolate as a conference treat/supplement)

Ok, so day three was still pretty hectic with sessions and side events. I know that last night, the late night in the exhibit hall, was supposed to fulfill my exhibit hall objectives, but there were too many folks around trying to accomplish the same thing! Birds of a feather and all that....so I did take some morning time to get back in there and interview some folks. As a librarian, I was curious about the various companies and whether they offered discounts or library versions of their products. We already subscribe to the library edition of Ancestry + Heritage Quest + Fold3. All  are very popular in the research library, but after talking with a couple of competitors, I learned that Archives.com does not offer a library subscription, but Find My Past was working on this option, hopefully for next year - nice tidbit for the future!

Session-wise, I attended some gems today! By far, my favorite today, and I believe for the entire conference so far, was the "Lost Children" session by Jeanne Larzalere Bloom. If you have any guardianship, orphan, adoption, or vagrant issues in your tree, this is one session you need to learn more about! This one struck a chord with me for two reasons: 1. This is a question we get asked a lot at the reference desk. It is a common source of brick wall material for many, and tracking down any records takes talent and tenacity. Kentucky is like most states in that this is a huge challenge. Over the centuries, various organizations were in charge of these transactions, and not regulated by government authorities until late 19th or early 20th centuries. 2. My own grandfather was a part of the orphan system in Kentucky. We are lucky to have his records as given to us by the orphanage, but so many are not this lucky and the rights of adoptees has become a great issue. Ms. Bloom's session outlined the specific challenges and philosophies of the this issue by time period. What invaluable information! I will be using some of her tips to help patrons who walk in with this challenge. Bottom line: If you can get any of her material regarding this subject - get it!

Ok....caffeine fading....the rest of the day resulted in more research at the library....more conversations and fun moments....an 1812 celebration....and a live #genchat session on Twitter, which just ended at 11....I think I've officially squeezed everything I can into this day! As my final entry for the last day (tomorrow), I will sum up my experience and close this self-imposed challenge out.
Goodnight all!
C

1940 Census - News From the Trenches

As we approach the noon hour on this historic morning of the official 1940 Census release by the National Archives, I wanted to document my experiences so far.....and share the one image I was able to download.

The morning began with anticipation tweets, a half hour press conference, and then tweets of frustration as very few people were able to download anything. It was clear the servers were just not up to the momentous task, and we all continue to wait for bigger servers, or at least for the rush to slow down for improved search results.

Having your enumeration numbers ready was a clear headstart since all portions of the NARA site were painfully slow. I had thought of another enumeration district I could look up while waiting, but even the maps and descriptions would not load for me.

By using the enumeration district you can search much quicker, and as you can see from the image below, they have the option of searching by either 1930 or 1940 ED. This can be very helpful if you have not done your homework ahead of time. Ancestry.com has opened up their 1940 related documents until April 10th, which includes the 1930 Census. Since their servers are running much faster, just pop over there to get your 1930 ED while you wait!

Once I put in the search for my 1940 ED, I was taken to a results page that listed Map images, Description Images and Census Schedules. The Census Schedule is the NEW Census image which is the one we have been waiting for!

But alas, clicking on that link this morning is where people have been shut out almost completely. It times out, shows a broken link or an error. Hovering your mouse over the spinning wheel that appears to be loading something will give you a menu of "Quick View, View Full Screen or Download". As many have reported, going to full screen and then choosing "Download" seems to yield the best results. I opted for "Quick View" then "Full Screen" while in the Quick View, and then chose "Download" the one page only. After many tries at various combinations, I finally had my first real image at about 11:30AM. The winner for today was the first page of the ED 96-6 from Pendleton County Kentucky!

The surnames on this page are: Kidwell, Brooks, Record, Pribble, Shoemaker, Woodyard, Gilham, VanLandingham, Jett, McClanahan, Parr, Norris, Flaugher, Moore and Miller. Unfortunately, there are 18 pages for the 96-6 ED alone, so I will be taking a break from the action before I try for more pages. I had tried right away after this success, but was encountering the same problems as earlier - and a girl can only take so much spinning!

Some other news regarding access as of noon April 2nd:

Ancestry.com has won the access race so far. They received the images at 12:01AM and have been loading images for browsing since then. As of noon today, they had 11 states/territories available for browsing - and I must say, the images loaded very fast. I didn't even need an ED as there were drop-downs to let me choose state, county, community which then took me to an ED area for browsing. Very fast, and as they add more states, I will be using them for browsing unless the NARA system improves considerably. I think Ancestry is the dark horse today as most people will be flooding NARA and not bothering with Ancestry access - which means their less traffic will make for smoother sailing.

FamilySearch only has one state up for browsing as of noon: Delaware. Nice page for searching and progress, plus the images loaded very fast.....but with only one state by noon, Ancestry is winning!

MyHeritage has a lovely 1940 Census page exploring the culture and times, and announces that they will have content from the 1940 Census that no one else will: "See new unpublished records first - We'll be uploading data for US States that aren't yet available anywhere else, so you'll be the first to explore them!" However, as of noon, they have not posted any images from the 1940 Census.

Well that's it for now....I'm taking a break. Hopefully others will too and as the intensity slows down, so will the traffic, and things might get a chance to stabilize. This not a failure folks but a wonderful learning opportunity for everyone - from the server side to the user side! Can't wait for 2022 when the 1950 Census comes out! We will all have a good laugh about our 2012 access struggles :-)