After the U.S. National Archives provided access to the 1950 United States Census images on their website on the morning of 1 April 2022, including a rudimentary index, it took less than two days for Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com and FamilySearch to download, install and link up all of the 1950 United States Census images for their customers to browse for free.
NOTE: There is no index yet on the websites of the three companies, but they are all working on providing an index in the coming weeks and months.
Researchers can help themselves find their target persons by knowing the address of those persons in 1950. City Directories, voter registrations, telephone books, family papers, school yearbooks, obituaries, and other records may help identify a city or town, and an address.
To use the available websites before an index is available, it really helps to know the Enumeration District. There are over 220,000 of them in the 1950 U.S. Census, each with between 20 and 100 pages of enumerations for persons living in those districts. Once you know an address, the Steve Morse Unified Enumeration District Finder and the Ancestry Census District Finder may help identify an Enumeration District (ED). Use a 1950 period street map, or present-day Google Maps, to help you find cross streets.
A) Here is where researchers can access the 1950 United States Census online:
1) The U.S. National Archives 1950 Census website - https://1950census.archives.gov/ :
a) Search for a name. The index has last names for the heads of household and persons with last names different from the head of household, but not for other persons with the same last name as the head (for example, spouses, children, grandchildren, etc.). This name index was generated by a handwriting recognition algorithm but the algorithm has difficulty discerning letters that look the same. The name search finds last names that are one letter different from the name you are seeking (for instance, a search for "seaver" finds "seaner," "sever," "severs," "deaver," and more). Common name searches (e.g., Smith, Brown, etc.) are difficult in a large city.
b) Search for an Enumeration District (ED). You can search for an Enumeration District, and then look at each page in the ED for your people. If a name search doesn't reveal your target person in a county or state, or there are too many matches, then this is the fallback option.
c) Search for a name first, and then search for an ED number. If you get a long list of names in a name search, then add an ED number and if there are matches in a specific ED you may find your target, or fewer matches at the least.
2) The Ancestry.com 1950 United States Federal Census record collection - https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62308/ :
Since there is no searchable name index yet, the user has to use the search box on the right side of the screen to browse the collection. Select a State, and then a County, and a Populated Place (if a larger city), and the system will provide a list of Enumeration Districts. Pick one of the Enumeration Districts. In large cities, there are hundreds or thousands of EDs. You can put your cursor in the list of EDs and do a "Find" to find an ED number. Ancestry lists the EDs in alphabetical order (not numerical), so, for example, ED 72-4 follows ED 72-399.
Once you select an Enumeration district, you can then browse that ED, moving back and forward page-by-page using the page navigation until you find your target. Alternatively, you can edit the image number on the current page and hit "Enter" to move to a specific image (e.g., image 20 of 54).
3) The MyHeritage.com 1950 United States Federal Census record collection - https://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-11009/1950-united-states-federal-census-images :
Since there is no searchable name index yet, the user has to use the search box on the screen to browse the collection. Select a State, and then a County, and a City/Town, and an ED if you know one. The system will provide a list of Enumeration Districts if you don't know one. Pick one of the Enumeration Districts. In large cities, there are hundreds or thousands of EDs. You can do a "Find" to find an ED number, but MyHeritage shows you only 10, 20 or 50 EDs per page - you have to advance to the next page.
Once you select an Enumeration district, you can then browse that ED, moving back and forward page-by-page using the page navigation until you find your target. Alternatively, you can edit the image number on the current page and hit "Enter" to move to a specific image (e.g., image 20 of 54).
4) The FamilySearch 1950 United States Census - https://www.familysearch.org/records/images/search-results?projectId=M9HW-2YP&page=1&fullMap=true&place=1 :
Since there is no searchable name index yet, the user has to use the map or the search box on the screen to browse the collection. Select a State from the map or dropdown menu, then a County from the map or a dropdown menu, and then a Places Within from a dropdown menu. The EDs within the Places Within will be listed below the map. Pick one of the Enumeration Districts. In large cities, there are hundreds or thousands of EDs. You can not do a "Find" to find an ED number. You can move the map lower boundary up using your mouse, and you may have to use the scroll bar at the bottom of your screen to see the ED number.
Once you select an Enumeration district, you can then browse that ED, moving back and forward page-by-page using the page navigation until you find your target. Alternatively, you can edit the image number on the current page and hit "Enter" to move to a specific image (e.g., image 20 of 54).
B) For each of these websites you:
* Will have to use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in to read most of the images.
* Can Download the record image to your computer using the "Tools" icon on each page.
* Can Browse the names on all of the pages in the ED to find your target person.
* For the pages that have "Person not at home" in the listing, the listing will tell which "Sheet" number the person is on on that ED, or some other note. The added-on "Sheets" start at 71. The "Sheet" number is in the upper right-hand corner of the census page image. It is not the "image" number. Sheet 71 may be on image 30 (or some other image number).
* If you don't find your target person in the ED, they may be in another ED, or they may be in a different city/town and/or state. You may have to wait until the websites have a searchable index with more search options (such as birth year, race, sex, spouse name, children name, etc.). Even then, your target person my have been missed, or wrongly named, in the census.
C) I hope this helps you to find your target persons.
No comments:
Post a Comment