I've been (im)patiently waiting for completion of indexing of the 1940 U.S. Federal Census and watching as additional states are added on Ancestry.com.

Today I happened upon the Census Community Project. The entire 1940 census is being indexed by volunteers and will be made available for free on several sites: Archives.com, FindMyPast.com, National Archives, ProQuest, and FamilySearch.org. More about the project can be found at their website: https://the1940census.com.  

I knew the Minnesota Genealogical Society was participating, but I hadn't kept up with the progress. While Minnesota indexes are not yet available, it turns out South Dakota is one of many states already searchable. 

I've been researching my paternal grandmother's family. In this faded photograph, taken in South Dakota in about 1941, my grandmother (Retta) is second from the left. On the left is her sister Anna; brother Clifton "Cliff" is in the center with sister Nettie next to him holding his arm. 

Who's the little woman on the right, looking away from the camera? She's too small to be one of my grandmother's siblings. This has puzzled me for years. From my research of the 1920 and 1930 censuses, I knew Cliff worked for the railroad and he and his wife Ella lived in Sioux Falls, SD. But Ella died in 1932. Did Cliff remarry? Cliff died in 1951 (in the Yankton State Hospital), and I could find no obituary.

I was hoping the 1940 census would provide a clue about the woman in the photo, and it did! When I queried the 1940 census on FamilySearch, I found Cliff living in Sioux Falls with his wife Josephine. Their census response indicated they were living in the same house where they'd resided five years earlier, so apparently Cliff and Josephine were married prior to 1935. Now I have a name for the photo and a lead for further research!