If you haven't started prepping for the release of the 1950 US Census (scheduled for April 1, 2022), you still have time. But do plan ahead.
Browse 7.8 million pages?
When the Census documents are released on that first day, there will be no index and no transcriptions. The public will be able to click through images of every page of the population schedule, with names and details handwritten by enumerators. This genealogical gold mine will be browse-only, in other words.
Who has time to browse all 7,800,000 pages of the population schedule in search of our ancestors?
Three steps to prep for browsing
Getting ready to find ancestors in the unindexed 1950 Census is a three-step process, shown at the top. In recent months, I've posted blog entries about all three steps. Here are the links.
- List key ancestors (post is here). This is how you set priorities for who you want to find when the Census is initially released.
- Find each ancestor's 1950 residence (post is here). You'll need this to locate your ancestor in the correct Enumeration District.
- Find each ancestor's 1950 Enumeration District (post is here). Turn the address into an ED, thanks to Steve Morse and Joel Weintraub's powerful ED-finder tool.
If your genealogy group is seeking a speaker to discuss the 1950 Census release and demonstrate how to look for ancestors, please keep me in mind!
Ok I’m starting on this tomorrow. Has familysearch announced a group indexing project like we did for the 1940?
ReplyDeleteI've put this aside too many times. Need to get started - thanks for the "push"!
ReplyDelete