The interest of people, from different parts of the globe, in a 1940 US census was so high that the government’s website was choked as soon as the official census report was published on it, according to the Guardian.

According to Miriam Kleiman, spokeswoman for the US national archives within four hours of publishing the official findings of the census, the site received 22m hits from an estimated number of two million users. The hits reached over 37m within a span of eight hours.

The records were released for the first time in 72 years as the confidentiality rule on them had expired.

Representatives from US national archives claim that the records are a good source of information and one of the biggest ever published in US. Moreover, they also serve as an excellent tool for families to dig up on their pasts.

The census includes database of over 21 million people who still reside in US and Puerto Rico. The census was conducted after the great depression and came shortly before the historical bombings of Pearl Harbour.

Access to the records is absolutely free; however the details are not yet searchable through names.