1950 US Census: Formats For Citing Your Source

Now that I'm downloading 1950 US Census records from the US National Archives to attach to ancestors on my family trees, I'm thinking about how to document my source for these key records. In general, there are several acceptable citation formats, as summarized by the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Here are two possibilities updated for the 1950 Census in particular.

Citation example following suggestion of Elizabeth Shown Mills

Genealogy expert Elizabeth Shown Mills has citation suggestions on the Facebook page for her best-selling book, Evidence Explained, and on her own Facebook page, both original posts dated April 1. 

Following her recommendation, here's to cite the three-person family of Louis Woolf, which begins on line 5 and ends on line 7 of the Census excerpt shown above. 

1950 U.S. Census, Westchester County, NY, New Rochelle, ED 67-43, sheet 9, household 105, lines 7-9 (Louis Woolf family); U.S. National Archives, 1950 Census (https://1950Census.archives.gov/search). 

Note that the street address isn't needed, nor are the names of other people in the family, because all of that is covered by the household number and line numbers.

Citation example following suggestion of Claire Kluskens

Claire Kluskens, Genealogical Projects Archivist for the U.S. National Archives, suggests a slightly different format for citing this Census as a genealogical source. You can see her suggestion on the History Hub here.

Following her recommendation, here's how to cite the same three-person family of Louis Woolf.

Louis Woolf family, Lines 7-9, Sheet 9, Enumeration District 67-43, New Rochelle, Westchester County, New York; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC, downloaded from https://1950census.archives.gov/ on April 23, 2022.

Citation example following Ancestry's format

Above, how Ancestry cited the 1950 US Census as the source of a different record I just attached to my family tree. Note that the citation includes year, record group, residence date, and the town, county, state. I can edit this citation on my Ancestry tree to add more specifics (family name, ED, sheet number, HH number, line numbers, etc.). As it stands, I would need those extra details to retrace my research path.

IMHO: Short, sweet, and practical 

My personal plan is to adapt the formal citation formats. Short, sweet, and to the point will work best for my personal purposes.

As long as I provide specifics, I believe others will be able to retrace my steps and see what I saw about an ancestor in the 1950 Census, at any time in the future. 

Here's my concise but detailed version of the citation, neither formal nor official by any means.

1950 U.S. Census, New Rochelle, Westchester County, NY, ED 67-43, sheet 9, household 105, lines 7-9 (Louis Woolf family).

This is my preference, for personal use, and it may not work for everyone. 

IMHO, the key elements of documenting a source are shown in my abbreviated version, for my personal use: I cited the 1950 US Census, providing the town, county, state, ED, sheet number, household number, and line numbers, plus head of household and family name. 

"Document" is this week's #52Ancestors prompt from Amy Johnson Crow.

"Of the Time" 1950 US Census Ads and Training

While impatiently waiting for the release of the 1950 US Census on April 1, I've been learning a little more about what went on behind the scenes in the buildup to the actual count.

1950 ads for the Census

The U.S. government worked with Madison Avenue on a massive advertising campaign to get businesses to support and promote the 1950 US Census. 

The Ad Council made available a number of preformatted print ads for local businesses to run in local publications in advance of Census Day.

The ad shown here addresses concerns about confidentiality. "It's OK, boys: You can tell him everything...He's the Census Man!" [Note: Many enumerators were female, of course, but remember, these ads were very much of the time.]

The ad tells readers the Census has no connection with those dreaded "revenooors." It's fun to look back at those ads, which show the Census Bureau was well aware that people worried about answering personal questions asked by enumerators. 

1950 enumerator training 

In the middle of the last century, schools and businesses often used film strips for training purposes. A trainer or teacher would watch the images projected on the screen and try to synchronize the separate recorded narration on a record or cassette.

Training for the 1950 US Census involved a number of film strips. Read more here, in the fascinating History Hub post by Claire Kluskens. 

See some of these "of the time" film strips on Dr. Joel Weintraub's YouTube Channel here.

To read the script for the training film strip titled "Income--What It Is and How to Report It!" click here. 

Despite the coffee stain on page 8, and tape fixing page 9, the typed script is quite readable. It offers insight into how the Census Bureau instructed enumerators about collecting income info from the public, again very "of the time."

Getting in the mood for the 1950 US Census? We have only 78 days to wait for the release!

For links to more information about the 1950 US Census release, see my summary page here.