The Sixteenth Unites States Census records for Lafayette County, Florida, for 1940. The census divides the population by name, age, sex, race, marital status, residence, home owned or rented, value of home or monthly rent, whether living on a farm, other residents of same address, relation to head of house, attended school or college after March 1940, highest grade completed, state or foreign country of birth, employment status, hours of work per week, duration of employment, and wages. Supplemental questions include the father and mother's birthplace, language spoken in home during childhood, veteran status, father's veteran status, social security, usual occupation and industry, class of worker, if women have been married more than once, age at first marriage if so, and number of children born.
A notable resident listed in the record is William H. Soucie (1909-1996). Born on October 9, 1909, in Portland, Connecticut, Soucie enlisted in the United States Army on June 21, 1935. Upon completion of his first four-year enlistment, Soucie returned to civilian life as a mill hand in Western Massachusetts on August 21, 1939. He re-enlisted in the Army twenty-four days after the United Sates declared war on Japan, serving in the United States Army Air Force from 1941 until 1947. At the end of this stint, he took less than a month break before joining the newly-formed Department of the Air Force. In the Air Force, Soucie fought in the Korean War. He actively participated in the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He retired to Port Richey, Florida, in 1967, where he passed away pm December 11, 1996. He is buried in the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.
In 2017, the University of Central Florida was one of three universities selected to launch the National Cemetery Administration’s
Veterans Legacy Program Project. The program engaged a team of scholars to make the life stories of veterans buried in the Florida National Cemetery available to the public. The project engages UCF students in research and writing and fosters collaboration between students, faculty and local Central Florida schools to produce interactive curriculum for k-12 students. The corresponding website exhibit uses RICHES Mosaic Interface to create a digital archive of related data. The public can use the project-developed augmented-reality app at more than 100 gravesites at the Florida National Cemetery, where they can access the UCF student-authored biographies of veterans.