What’s happening on April 2 in 2012?

Well, to those of us who are avid genealogists, it’s an important day. That’s when the 1940 U.S. Census becomes available online to the public. For those of you that aren’t genealogists, there is a requirement to protect citizens’ privacy for 72 years. So the latest census you can review right now is the 1930 census.

This can be frustrating when you’re trying to track down an ancestor who was born between census years or just after the 1930 census.

If you want to know more about the contents of the 1940 census in a 10-minute video created by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, you can check it out on YouTube. This film was created in 1939-1940 and focuses on the role of the enumerators (census takers), but does give you an overview of who was counted, etc.

For those of you who were around in 1940, do YOU know where you were in 1940?