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1940 census searchers overloads website

Interest in the newly released 1940 US census was so great that the government website was nearly paralysed shortly after the records became available to the public.

Miriam Kleiman, spokeswoman for the US national archives, said the site registered more than 22m hits in just four hours on Monday, from almost 2 million users. After eight hours there had been 37m hits.

The government released the records for the first time after the 72-year confidentiality rule expired.

It is the largest collection of digital information ever released by the National Archives. The records allow individuals and families to learn details about their past....

Read entire article at Guardian (UK)