The 1950 Census

 So what are you doing to celebrate April Fool’s Day next year? Die hard genealogists know exactly what they’re going to be doing and really are planning out for the holiday already. Why? It’s not to play a joke on anyone, at least we hope not! That is the date exactly 72 years after the 1950 census was taken. So? So! It will be released to the public that day!

Lay in all the snacks. Cancel any appointments already made. Refuse to schedule any new meetings. Okay, so maybe don’t go that crazy- but if you have a lot of people to find and are anxious to find them as soon as possible, maybe you should go to these extremes. Be aware that with so many people looking at the census records at once, many of the genealogy database sites will be slow.

So, what exactly should you be doing to prepare? Start making your lists on paper or some sort of digital such as Word or Excel programs. The more you have done ahead of time, the easier it will be. Remember too, that when the census is first released, nobody has had a chance to go through and index the records yet. It will be weeks or months before you can search them automatically. In the meantime, the only way you can find a person is by scanning through page, by page.

First, who are you looking for? Make a list of all you want to find. List the expected head of household (usually the Dad of the family) followed by the wife and any children. Of course, some households may be grandparents and a child and his or her family. Others may be headed by a widowed or divorced mother. It doesn’t really matter as long as you know who to expect and the name or names of the people you are looking for. When a household is hard to find, I have often searched for a child with a more unusual name thinking that will jump out at me easier than the more common names.

Next, how old were they in 1950? List an approximate age next to each person so that you can use this as reference to gage whether you have the correct person or not. It is easier to have this done ahead of time than trying to calculate many ages on the fly. Of course, not all reported their ages accurately, but this gives you a guideline.

Next where did they live? Hopefully you have at least an idea! The closer you can narrow it down, the better off you will be. A state would be almost impossible to scan through before the indexes are done. Depending on how populated an area is, a county might be doable, but I’d much prefer to look at only a town or village to try to find a family.

In rural areas, you need to have the general area, at least a town level. In states other than New York, this is usually referred to as a township, but I use town as that is what it is commonly called in this area.

In urban areas, it is VERY helpful to have the enumeration district. This limits your search to a certain part of a city instead of the entire population. Steve Morse’s site can help you find them especially if you know from 1940 which enumeration district they were in. His site is at stevemorse.org and has a lot of handy tools for census records, immigration records and a whole lot more. Even if you don’t need to find enumeration districts, it is worth checking out for other tools as well.

So, where can you find these census records once April 1st rolls around? Most of the major sites will have them available as well as NARA (National Archives and Records Administration). The most popular sites would be Ancestry and Family Search.

A page from the 1940 including one of my uncles