We have less than a month to wait for the release of 1950 US Census!
The US National Archives (NARA) has begun posting a series of video presentations to help us get ready to find ancestors in this mid-century Census. No preregistration, no fee, just click to watch.
You can see the full schedule and watch individual videos, as they're posted, on this YouTube page. If you watch as each video debuts, you can participate in live Q&A via chat and get answers from experts in the know! If you watch after that time, you can still read the entire Q&A in the chat box, but you can't ask new questions.
Two highlights from talk by Claire Kluskens
The initial presentation in the National Archives series took place yesterday, March 2d. Here are two of many key takeaways from this excellent talk by Claire Kluskens.
- Look for Sheet #71. Once you've determined that your ancestor is likely to be in a particular Enumeration District, be sure to browse the final ED pages. You're looking for sheet #71. Why? Because if your ancestor wasn't home when the enumerator came calling the first time, that household would likely have been enumerated out of order. The details would have been written on sheet #71. Remember, even if an ED was tiny and had only 12 pages, there will be a sheet #71 if any household was enumerated out of order for some reason. It's not that sheets were missing between page 12 and page 71. The Census Bureau deliberately designated Sheet #71 as the page where households enumerated out of order would be recorded in each ED. So always go to the end and look for sheet #71 (sheet numbers are at far right corner of population schedule, see star in image above).
- Look at notes section. As shown here, the notes section is a blank area midway on the page. Enumerators might write comments or explanations here (such as whether an age is actually an estimate or whether a respondent might not be telling the truth). Also see whether the little box (red arrow) is checked. If your ancestor is enumerated on the final line(s) of that page, the box being checked is an indication to continue onto the next page to see more people in that same household. Do glance at the notes, if any, and look for the check box.
I highly recommend watching Claire's talk and downloading her slides from this pdf. That way, you'll have the slides at hand for reference.
The next two speakers in the NARA series have already posted their slides for download. I can't stress enough how valuable these slides are, jam-packed with information that will help us find ancestors when the Census is released on April 1.
Right now:
Here is one excerpt from his talk. The "Begin search" button will lead to a search interface. The "How to search" button will explain the different methods of searching (by location or by name). He shows a sample name search and a sample location search.
These videos and downloaded slides will give you a headstart before the 1950 Census is actually released!
For more about the preparing for the 1950 US Census release, please see my summary page here.
