What's in a Name?

I found this interesting article at Newsday: Baby Names on Genealogy Website. While I don't have personal experience on choosing baby names, I do use various baby name resources as research for the character names in my stories and novels. This is actually a great resource for my stories that are set smack in the middle of the 20th century.

Have you found any interesting names in the 1940 census, whether it was a person in your family or not? Knowing that many spelling mistakes can happen due to accents and literacy levels, have there been any names in the 1940 census that you just couldn't make out?

Gems of the Census

When the 1940 census came out last week, I knew I would find grandparents and great-grandparents, plus all of their siblings. I was also fortunate enough to gather a few extra clues on a great-great grandmother I was stuck on. Before, I could never find her parents but with the clues I got from the 1940 census, I found out where her parents were born, and more importantly the state where she was born. That has narrowed my search a great deal. So much so that I think I'm hot on the trail of her father... now all I have to do is find the right sources to confirm it!

I have also gathered up a list of graves that I need to visit and get pictures. I was so excited when I started making the list, but now there are 148 names in just five Indiana counties. Now it seems a little overwhelming, but I hope that I will be able to get it all done over the summer. It's a cheap--but slightly creepy--vacation plan.

1940 is Almost Here

I went to Ancestry.com this morning to enter the contest they have running right now and saw at the top of the page that there's only 28 days until the release of the 1940 census. I totally forgot about that. I'm really kind of excited. There are a lot of family members I can look up in the 1940 census. I'm going to start putting together a list so I can be ready whenever it gets online.