Find Your Family in the Nashua 1940 Census!

In order to find your ancestors and relatives in the newly released 1940 census you will need to know where they lived in April, 1940. You can use city directories, old phone books, and family letters to help you find the address. Usually there is someone alive now who remembers where the family was living in 1940. 

If you don’t have an address, you can wait a few months for the indexing project to be completed, and you will be able to just type a name into the database and pull up your ancestor’s census image.

If you have the address now, you can use the Enumeration District chart below, or Steve Morse’s Unified 1940 Census ED Finder online.  At this website, you can type in the street address and find the Enumeration District. 

Once you have the ED number you can go to any of the websites hosting the 1940 census and pull up the entire district.  You will have to browse through the district, page by page to find your family. This is not too hard if you remember that the enumerator often walked down one side of the street, or around the block, and then did the other sides of the streets. You might have to page through quite a few pages to find your family’s home. Don’t be discouraged!

At the following four websites you can type in the ED to find your family: the National Archives and Record Administration at http://1940census.archives.gov/,  MyHeritage.com, www.FamilySearch.org, www.worldvitalrecords.com and Ancestry.com.  All are free to the public except for Ancestry (requires a subscription), but it is available at the Nashua Public Library if you don’t have a home subscription.

At SteveMorse.org you can use the Street finder to find the names of all the streets inside each enumeration district.  The chart below shows only the boundaries.  The Steve Morse website also shows descriptions of the EDs, and can help you find the ED number for other towns and cities in New Hampshire.   Once you find the correct district, have fun browsing your family’s neighborhood.  You will see the names of people your grandparents went to school with, played baseball, and perhaps even married the girl next door!

Nashua 1940 Census Enumeration District boundaries

6-114     City Limits, Concord, Mt. Pleasant, Manchester

6-115     Pennichuck Brook, Manchester, Cushing, Amherst, Broad, B&M RR, Nashua Protestant Orphanage

6-116     Cushing, Manchester, Mount Pleasant, Concord, Amherst

6-117     Broad, Amherst, Main, Franklin, Locust, Auburn, Charles, Fairmont B&M RR

6 -118    B&M RR, Fairmont, Charles, Auburn, Locust, Franklin, Main, Nashua River, City Limits

6- 119    Pennichuck Brook, Merrimack River, Tolles, Summer, Concord

6-120    Summer, Tolles, Whitney, Granite

6- 121    Summer, Granite, Whitney, Tolles, Nashua River, Main, Concord

6- 122    Merrimack River, Nashua River, B&M RR, Lock, Tolles,

6- 123    Lock, B&M RR, Nashua River, Tolles also Convent of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Sisters of Jeanne, D’Arc

6-124     Nashua River, Merrimack River, Crown, B&M RR

6-125     Nashua River, B&M RR, Hollis, Spruce, Worcester, South, Temple St., Temple Pl., Cottage Ave, Cottage St., Park, Main

6-126      Park, Cottage St., Cottage Ave, Temple Pl., Temple St., E. Pearl, Main

6- 127     E. Pearl, South, Worcester, Spruce, Harbor Ave, Prospect, Main also Sisters of Mercy, Memorial Hospital, United Spanish War Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars Home

6-128      Water, Main, W. Pearl, Walnut, Factory, Washington

6-129     Nashua River, Main, Water, Washington, Factory, Walnut, W. Pearl, Chestnut, Central, Pine

6-130     Central, Chestnut, W.  Pearl, Walnut, W. Hollis, Pine

6- 131    W. Pearl, Main, W. Hollis, Walnut

6-132     W.  Hollis, Main, Mulberry, Walnut, Kinsley, Pine also Brothers of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of Jeanne d’Arc, St. Aloysius Convent

6-133    Mulberry, Main, Otterson, Walnut also Nashua Protestant Home for Aged Women

6-134    excluding St. Joseph’s Orpanage (Gray Nuns), Kinsley, Walnut, Otterson, Main, Lake St., Pine

6-135     St. Joseph’s Orphanage (Gray Nuns)

6-132A   West Hollis, Chestnut, Kinsley, Pine

6-132B   W. Hollis, Main, Mulberry, Walnut, Kinsley, Chestnut

6-136      E. Hollis, B&M RR, Crown, Merrimack River, Salmon Brook, Allds, Burke, Arlington, King’s Daughter’s Home for Children

6-137      E. Hollis, Arlington, Bowers, Harbor Ave, Convent of the Sisters of the Holy Cross and Sisters of Jeanne d’Arc

6-136    Bowers, Arlington, Burke, Allds

6-139    Prospect, Harbor Ave, Bowers, Allds, Salmon Brook, Main

6-140    Salmon Brook, Merrimack River, City Limits, Lowell St., Main (exclude John M. Hunt Home for Aged Couples and Mary E. Hunt Home for Aged Women)

6-141     Lake St., Main, Stevens, S. Chestnut, Chestnut, Lowell, Pine

6-142    Kinsley, Pine, Lake St., Dunstable Rd. (exclude St. Joseph’s Hospital)

6-143   Runnell Bridge Road, Cemetery,  Dunstable Rd., Lake St, B&M RR, City limits

6-144  Lake St., Pine, Lowell, S. Chestnut, Stevens, Main, Lowell Rd., City limits, B&B RR

6-145  Nashua River, Pine, Ledge, Perry Ave, B&M RR, Yvonne, W. Hollis, Cemetery, Runnells Bridge Road, City Limits

6-146   Ledge, Pine, W. Hollis, Yvonne, B&M RR, Perry Ave

6-147   W. Hollis, Pine, Kinsley