The 1940 US census data was released online this morning by the National Archives after a mandatory 72-year waiting period, the Washington Post reported. Sudden demand for the website was so great — nearly 23 million hits in three hours — that National Archives servers were overloaded, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The Census Bureau has published images of the completed census forms from over 132 million Americans, and is beginning a "crowd-sourcing" project with the help of researchers and over 100,000 volunteers who will compile the information into an index searchable by name, CBS News reported. 

"We now have access to a street-level view of a country in the grips of a depression and on the brink of global war," National Archives chief David Ferriero said at a launch event in Washington, BBC News reported. 

The 1940 census was taken on April 1st, 1940, though entries were recorded throughout early April, according to the National Archives 1940 Census website.

In addition to information about participants' birthplace, citizenship status, occupation and race, the 1940 census was the first to also ask questions about wages and income, housing, employment status, education, and military service – even which homes had radios and flush toilets, according to CBS News. 

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1940 "marked the beginnings of a shift from a depressed peacetime to a prosperous wartime," David E. Kyvig, the author of Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1939, told NPR.  The vast amount of newly-released data will allow historians "to look closely at particular communities and how people within them were doing in terms of employment, income and material comforts," said Kyvig. 

Though some privacy experts are concerned that the 72-year wait is not long enough, many who were alive during the 16th federal census have no problem with their personal records being released, the Associated Press reported. 

"I'd be happy to see it there," Verla Morris, a 100-year-old historian and writer, said. "I don't think anything could surprise me, really."

Morris is one of more than 21 million people still alive in the US and Puerto Rico who filled out the 1940 census, and has been working on her family history since 1969. She has written six books about her ancestry, and said census records were essential to her genealogical work, according to the AP. 

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72 years was considered to be longer than most life spans, which is why it was designated as the official wait time before releasing records, NPR reported.

"In 1952, the director of the Census Bureau and the National Archivist agreed that keeping census records private for 72 years balanced public release of federal records with the tradition of confidentiality," explained Vicki Glasier, the Census Bureau spokesperson, according to NPR.

Robert Gellman, a privacy and information consultant, doubted that records would be of much value to criminals, given the ease of obtaining personal information online, he told the AP. 

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

According to the LA Times, however, demand for the information was so overwhelming that it interrupted access to NARA servers.

"We're a victim of our own success, " NARA spokeswoman Susan Cooper was quoted as saying.

Many web surfers were unable to access the site, she said.

"We’re working as fast as we can to fix the problem," Cooper said.