If you use the ANCESTRY.com database, which you can use at home with a subscription and at no charge at some libraries, you will notice that the 1940 census is in process.
Last I checked the states of Delaware and Nevada had been indexed on Ancestry.com, so a name should take you to census pages for those states. Ancestry is paying people to index and as I hear it, made a deal (paid) with National Archives to use the images.
I'M VERY HAPPY TO SEE THAT THE CITY INFORMATION on ANCESTRY.COM INCLUDES THE WARD OF THE CITY on the pull down menu. I checked a couple cities and made lists of ED districts by ward which I will read by ward as my research path.
What makes a ward? Well, it could be that wards were numbered by the development of that town, take into consideration geography such as rivers and hills, railroad tracks, even churches, with perhaps a population expanding and more suburban development. In some cases, if you found an ethnic ghetto in a ward in 1930, that's a good place to start on the 1940 for the descendants of those ethnic people.
Because there are over 13 million images for the 1940 census, it could be a very long time before the entire census is indexed. As most of us know badly or wrongly spelled surnames, inkblots, cross outs, and horrible handwriting, are all challenges to indexers.
THE LATTER DAY SAINTS have launched an ambitious project soliciting volunteers among those attending church at stakes throughout the country with a goal of all names in all states to be completed in 6 months! THE INFORMATION WILL BE FREE FOR USE ON THEIR FAMILYSEARCH SITE. (Yes some of us are joking "Just in time for 12-12-2012."
One LDS volunteer I met has personally indexed at least 37,000 people! I believe you can join this INDEXING PROJECT without being a church member and if interested I would call the closest LDS Family History Library to ask. They have some software that makes it easier to do. I believe also that you can sign up to do a small portion - say one ward of a town or even one page, but it must be coordinated.
IN ORDER TO DEAL WITH INACCURACIES on the FAMILYSEARCH project, each page will be indexed twice (by two different volunteers) and then a third person will compare and make a judgement where there are any discrepancies. It's a good idea and should help a lot, but you may still find yourself reading page by page anyway.
The ED Converter on the sidebar here at ANCESTRY RESEARCH GENEALOGY I've tried at three different libraries - two public in two different cities - as well as at a Family History Center. It appears that it will take you to images at Ancestry (if you have a subscription you log on then) or the National Archives and some other options. I'm sticking with the National Archives.
