This reminded me I hadn't visited one of my favorite census sites in a while. If you have research interests in the US, I recommend IPUMS USA, a statistics-oriented site at the University of Minnesota. http://usa.ipums.org/usa/
Of particular interest to genealogists: the lists of questions on each census, and the instructions for Enumerators.
Some of the questions seem to differ quite a bit from previous censuses:
Then we have the residence questions (17-20)Place of Birth:
15. If born in the United States, give State, Territory, or possession. If foreign born, give country in which birthplace was situated on January 1, 1937. Distinguish Canada-French from Canada-English and Irish Free State (Eire) from Northern Ireland.
16. Citizenship of the foreign born.
The instructions explain the reasoning:Residence, April 1, 1935:
In what place did this person live on April 1, 1935? For a person who, on April 1, 1935, was living in the same house as at present, enter in Col. 17 'Same house,' and for one living in a different house but in the same city or town, enter 'Same place,' leaving Cols. 18, 19, and 20 blank, in both instances. For a person who lived in a different place, enter city or town, county, and State, as directed in the Instructions. (Enter actual place of residence, which may differ from mail address.)
Other questions (employment, etc.) refer to the period immediately preceding 1 Apr 1940 which is more like what I'd expect.481. Columns 17 to 20. In What Place did This Person Live on April 1, 1935?-In this section, which is designed to show the movement of population from one place to another between 1935 and 1940, there should be an entry for each person 5 years old or over indicating his place of residence in 1935 as outlined below.
If you read the instructions, eventually you come to this:
I can't wait for the howls of outrage from people on Ancestry, wanting to know why they can't have the answers to the supplementary questions for ALL of the people in their target households. [tongue]SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTIONS
599. At the bottom of each page of the Population schedule two lines are provided for certain supplementary information that is to be obtained for the two persons whose names fall on two designated lines of the Population schedule. These lines are easily identified by the heavy rules which extend into both left and right-hand margins of the schedule, by the notation 'Suppl. Quest.' (for supplementary questions) in the margins of the schedule, and by the bold-face line numbers. These bold-face line numbers are repeated at the bottom of the Population schedule in the block reserved from the supplementary questions.
600. Ask the supplementary questions only for the member of the household whose name is entered on one of the lines described above, whether this be the head, his wife, a son or daughter, an infant, a lodger, or any other member of the household.
601. Column 35. Name.-Enter in this column in full the name of the person form whom the supplementary information is required.
However, for those lucky enough to have relatives for the full return, they will get a LOT of information.
I am eager to see this census because my parents were married in the period between 1935 and 1940. For those of us who have relatives in cities, if city directories for 1935 and 1940 exist, this will be like getting two censuses instead of one.
I don't envy the programmers like Nick, though.
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