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Preparing for the 1950 census release

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April 1, the day the 1950 U.S. Census will be released, is less than a month away. While I declared that my March 30 x 30 challenge would be around watching RootsTech classes, it hasn’t worked out that way. Instead, I’m focusing more on getting ready for the 1950 census release.

I managed to work on both those goals simultaneously by watching Steve Morse’s RootsTech session called Getting Ready for the 1950 Census: Searching With and Without a Name Index last week. This is 50-minute session with great instruction on how to use Morse’s Unified 1950 Census ED Finder to find the enumeration districts of your relatives whose 1950 addresses in case you can’t find by using the index. (By the way, there’s a transcript version of that session, including the slides, here.)

So I’m busy filling out my spreadsheet of ancestors to look for with enumeration districts to check out on the morning of April 1. (I probably won’t stay until midnight to do it in the wee hours of the day.)

I blogged about Marian Burke Wood’s terrific presentation to the Kentucky State Historical Society on preparing for the census release. Today I received an email with a link to a video short of tips extracted from that talk. (And there’s a transcript!)

Other great resources for the 1950 census include this page from the Genealogical Forum of Oregon with information on the 1950 census, including instructions to enumerators, blank forms and a sample filled-in questionnaire. The site also has links to instructions for creating a list of ancestors who were alive in 1950 in Family Tree Maker, Legacy Family Tree and RootsMagic.

The National Archives is holding a series of webinars this spring on the 1950 census. Check out this webpage for the schedule and for links to past webinars in the series.

According to the National Archives 1950 census page, there will be a name index for the 1950 census as soon as it’s released. But since it’s created by artificial intelligence, there are bound to be inaccuracies. That’s why I’m looking up enumeration districts so I don’t spend my April Fool’s Day being frustrated. The National Archives is asking for our help in correcting the AI-generated index. There will be a transcription tool we can use to help. Check out NARA’s 1950 webpage for more information.

Where will we go to look for the 1950 census on April 1? If I’m reading NARA’s 1950 census page right, it will be available right on their page.

Preparing for the 1950 Census

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I’ve had April 1, 2022–the year that the 1950 census is made public–on my calendar for ages. But that distant day started to feel real when I attended the terrific webinar “Get Ready for the 1950 US Census!” presented by Marian B. Wood for the Kentucky Genealogical Society last night.

To be honest, I hadn’t thought much about all the things I could do to prepare for the census release in advance. But now I’m very excited to get to work so that on April 1 I can find my people on the census easily.

Here are some of my takeaways from the seminar. You can bet I’ll be blogging more about it!

  • The National Archives announced a few days ago that it is going to use artificial intelligence and optical character recognition to create a (probably crude) surnames index available on April 1. They’re also spearheading a public transcription effort. Check out their news release about it.
  • I’m not going to count on that index and instead intend to look for the Enumeration Districts for my ancestors so that I can browse the 1950 Census with ease. Marian Wood suggested creating a spreadsheet of ancestors, their 1940 addresses, their 1950 addresses and the corresponding Enumeration Districts. I can’t wait to dig into that.
  • To find the Enumeration District for an address, go to Steve Morse’s website to search the Unified Census ED Finder. Marian Wood suggested using Google Maps to narrow down the intersection and thus the number of Enumerations Districts you have to browse. I remember doing this for the 1940 Census but I’m looking forward to preparing in advance this time.
  • There’s a public Facebook group called 1950 US Census for Genealogists that will share resources about the 1950 census. I’ve joined and look for keeping an eye on the news there. It already has some great resources listed.
  • FamilySearch has created a landing page for the 1950 Census where you can sign up for updates.

In the webinar, we learned about some of the questions asked on this census and the instructions enumerators were given in recording the answers. Hidden assumptions were revealed! I’ll blog more about it later.

The release of the 1950 census is a big deal for those of us in the United States. I can’t wait to see the snapshots of my ancestors’ lives it reveals.