WPA Records

“WPA records were created between 1935 and 1943, when the federal government created the Works Projects Administration to provide work for thousands of unemployed Americans who were struggling to survive the depression of the 1930's.  Records of this program are at the National Archives and some state archives. Some of the projects resulted in interviews, surveys or guides that are useful to genealogists.”

This is the beginning of an article on using SPA documents in your genealogy research by Barb Snow. She gives both print and web resources on the WPA. If you had an adult male ancestor of working age in the 1935 to 1943 timeframe, they may have been employed in the WPA.

When the 1940 census is released in just a few months, you will be able to determine that work history for sure. At least one of the occupation questions on that census specifically asks if the respondent was employed in government programs such as the WPA.

Keep checking the PGS class schedule. ON 12 December 2011 and again on 9 January 2012 we will present a class on the content of the 1940 census and talk about ways you can search the census even before the indexes are completed for our normal website searches.

Check out the article at WPA Records