1940 census records include 21 million still alive

Robert Gellman, a privacy and information consultant, said he doubted the records would be of much value to crooks, given how easy it is to obtain personal information on the Internet.

"There's nobody out there complaining about 70-year-old records being used against them," he said.

Morris is also unconcerned about personal information from 1940 being made public.

A self-confessed genealogy addict, she said it was important for people to be able to learn about their ancestors through genealogical research and relies on census records constantly.

"Every family should be interested enough to have a family history," she said.

Online:

http://1940census.archives.gov

http://www.census.gov/1940census/

http://www.ancestry.com/1940

http://www.the1940census.com

Follow Cristian Salazar at http://twitter.com/crsalazarAP and Randy Herschaft at http://twitter.com/HerschaftAP