Earlier this year the National Archives released its records from the 1940 census. Most of those records have been indexed and can be found through two services offered by the library Ancestry Library and HeritageQuest.
While many people are eager to use the 1940 records for genealogical research, they can also be used to build a picture of a town in 1940.
Jefferson in 1940 had a population of 1,548 people, or approximately 17,500 fewer people than today. There were 832 males and 716 females. Two-thirds of the population was 21 or older.
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Even though Jefferson is far from the cities that attracted many immigrants, approximately nine percent of the population was foreign born in 1940. Browsing the census schedules you find people in Jefferson who were born in Sweden, Germany, Austria, Lithuania, Ireland, England, Norway, Russia, Poland, and Switzerland.
The small size of Jefferson in 1940 prevented the collection of occupational data, but a perusal of the census schedules reveals a variety of jobs—painter, laborer,
clerk, dye cutter, hatter, secretary, accountant, mason, salesman, carpenter,
cook, farmer, truck driver, real estate broker and teacher.
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Jefferson’s Housing statistics in 1940 reflect the presence of a vigorous tourism industry in Jefferson. The census reports that there were 1,685 dwellings in Jefferson at the time. However at the census only 454 of the dwellings were occupied. Some 923 were vacant but not for sale or rent. Perhaps this difference is explained by a large number of seasonal dwellings around Lake Hopatcong and other lake communities in Jefferson.
To learn more about Jefferson in 1940 using census data, you can visit the library and use the Ancestry Library service or you search from home using the HeritageQuest service. HeritageQuest requires that you provide a Jefferson library card number. The link to HeritageQuest can be found on the library’s web page at www.jeffersonlibrary.net.
The Jefferson Library is located at 1031 Weldon Road and is open from 9:30 a.m. - 9 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Saturdays and 1 - 5 p.m. on Sundays.
