Looking Back at 2024 Family History Progress

This has been another busy year of genealogy, with many projects and ongoing plans for sharing family history with future generations.

• Bite-sized ancestor bios continue as a major priority, and I'm making great progress. Some bios are quite detailed, some are quite brief (2-4 sentences) but all are intended to keep ancestors' memories alive for the future. The chart at right shows the main surnames I've profiled so far on WikiTree during 2024. No one has posted more bio profiles of Larimer surnames than me! Larimer was the name of my husband's immigrant ancestor back in the 1700s. 
• I've been redoing genealogy research on key ancestors, because new documents, stories, and photos become available all the time. Lots of progress here too, searching not only vital records databases but also newspaper databases for mentions of ancestors. Plus I've begun the process of learning more about my Dad's WWII military service and postwar health, following the steps recommended by Alec Ferretti in his webinar about US military pension records. I'm awaiting a response from the VA about Dad's file, which should have lots of info. 
• Getting rid of unneeded paper in my genealogy files...an ongoing process that has resulted in many trips to the recycle bin. Bonus: I'm following up on details that now have more significance than they did when I first saw a document or photo a decade or more in the past--meaning I'm putting the pieces together and learning more even as I downsize my paper files.
• I'm still telling family history stories, in books as well as orally. This year I created a small (6" x 6") book about my husband's Mayflower ancestors so that descendants will have this important background in writing! One grandchild actually asked a question about it 👍
• Little progress on a project I began two years ago: moving old photos from archival boxes to archival photo albums for the convenience of the younger generation. I want them to be able to browse albums and read captions instead of pawing through archival boxes. Maybe in 2025.
• Cousin connections continue! I've heard from a number of cousins interested in our family tree and with additional info to share. I'm thankful for their assistance.

Father and Two Sons in 1812 War: Larimer, Larimore, Larrimore

In my husband's Larimer family, a father and two sons from Ohio defended the nation during the War of 1812. 

Because of the variable spelling of the day, the service records of all three were originally filed under different surnames. 

Isaac Larimer (1771-1823) and son Robert Larimer (1792-1850) both served for a year in the 3d Regiment Ohio Volunteers, while son John Larimer (1794-1843) was a 90-day enlistee in the Ohio Militia.

At top, Robert Larimer's NARA reference card, showing he was originally filed under Larimore and then under Larimer. I was interested to see he was a drummer, enlisted at age 20.  

On the other hand, John Larimer's NARA reference card at right shows he was originally filed under Larrimore and then cross-referenced under Larimore. He was a private in the First Regiment Ohio Militia.

Below, their father Isaac Larimer's NARA reference card shows he was originally filed under Larimer and then referenced under the surname Larimore. Isaac, in his early 40s, was an ensign, a commissioned officer in the army.

After Isaac's death, his widow Elizabeth received a warrant for land bounty of 160 acres in the Larimer name. 

Isaac and Elizabeth were my husband's 4th great-grandparents, moving their family westward from Pennsylvania to Ohio in search of fertile farmland. They were only some of my husband's ancestors who caught Ohio Fever.

This post is for week 17 of Amy Johnson Crow's #52Ancestors genealogy prompt, "war."

PS: You know I married my husband for his ancestors, right?! 😆

1950 US Census Update at 115 Day Mark

The 1950 US Census was released 115 days ago, on April 1, 2022. You can browse or search for free on several sites. Indexing has been in the works since the first moment the Census was made available to the public. Here's an update on where things stand.

Family Search and Ancestry

Family Search and Ancestry teamed up to work on the index for this Census. Family Search's thousands of volunteers are making tremendous progress on reviewing and improving the index. You can browse any state while indexing continues.

Above, the map showing completed states and states still being reviewed. There's still time to participate and get this project over the finish line more quickly! Soon full search functionality should be ready at Family Search, for free.

Meanwhile, Ancestry's automated indexing system worked well enough that you may be able to find ancestors using the early draft index. Give it a try on Ancestry, for free. I've had excellent luck locating ancestors in 1950 using the Ancestry early index.

MyHeritage

MyHeritage also has the 1950 US Census searchable for free, using this access page. Not every state has been indexed, but work continues and soon all states will be indexed and searchable. Again, I've had good luck with indexed states, so do give it a try for free.

NARA

The original US National Archives (NARA) website remains available for researching in the 1950 US Census, ideally by enumeration district and surname or full name of head of household. It's entirely free, forever.

The NARA index has been slightly improved since April 1st, thanks to corrections submitted by members of the public, but it remains a "work in progress." 

I was able to find a cousin and her husband by searching for him (head of household) in ED 1-1025 in Washington, D.C, as shown here. The NARA site returned the exact page as the top result. Without entering the enumeration district, however, there were too many results to explore.

Top Tip

If you've looked for some ancestors who should have been in this Census, but haven't yet found them, try this: Join the Facebook group called 1950 US Census for Genealogy. The wonderful members have a lot of experience with Census searches! First browse the latest posts (usually queries followed by suggestions and answers). Then post if you have a specific question about how to search or what might be missing. Check back regularly to see what's happening!

1950 US Census: Seeking Big-City Ancestors on NARA site?

 

Having located nearly all of the closer ancestors I wanted to find in the 1950 US Census, I'm branching out to more distant ancestors.

At left, my search on the US National Archives site for someone living on East 141st Street in Cleveland, which is ED 92-945. 

Searching quickly only for Cuyahoga County, Ohio, ED 92-945, I was surprised to see "No Records Found" as shown here on the results page. 

Simply choosing the state/county and entering a specific ED is not enough to find ancestors living in big cities! 

Look for big city in NARA drop-down menu

NARA's drop-down menu for county does have a city/state choice of Cleveland, Cuyahoga. I didn't choose that option initially, but I quickly figured out how to improve my search.

Once I redid my search, and chose the city along with the county and the ED, the correct population schedules showed up in the results.

I checked with several experienced researchers and they confirm that if the city is one of the choices on the drop-down menu for county, be sure to select the city. 

Add a Transcription to Improve NARA's 1950 Census Index

Waiting for the big genealogy sites to index the entire 1950 US Census, I've been using the US National Archives site to locate my ancestors in that Census. Thankfully, NARA released a preliminary name index along with the images of the Census sheets, allowing for both name search and browsing. 

I've been most successful in locating ancestors when I try my search by inputting the state, county, Enumeration District, and surname of head of household.

Searching for Carrie

Above, results of my search for hubby's great aunt in ED 88-26 of Wyandot County, Ohio. Her name was Carrie E. Traxler. My search was for Traxler Carrie because the automated systems transcribed what they "read" on each line, and head of household was listed Surname Given. 

NARA's system can match on creative spelling, and the first result was the ancestor I wanted--even though the transcription wasn't perfect. Her name was NOT Traller Carriee, as the system read the enumerator's handwriting. But it's close!

Adding a transcription

NARA welcomes the public's assistance in adding correct transcriptions. It will accept both transcriptions that correct what the automated system says AND transcriptions that correct what the enumerator wrote. Note that this will not alter the actual Census in any way. It will improve the search system so others can find ancestors on the NARA 1950 Census site.

After I made a note of the line number where my husband's great aunt appears, here's how I added a transcription to correct her name as transcribed by the automated system.

First, I clicked the button to "Help Us Transcribe Names" and entered my email. NARA sent me a six-digit verification code, which I entered so I could begin my transcription. 

Next, I used the NARA drop-down menu to indicate line number...which took me to a blank of the screen shown above. I typed "Traxler" for last name, "Carrie" for first name, and "E" for middle name--all of which are shown in cursive handwriting on the Census form, but not accurately read by the automated system.

Other family members with same surname in same HH?

After submitting a transcription, NARA said thank you and invited me to "Add a transcription to the next line."

If Carrie Traxler's household included a husband or child or anyone with same surname directly below her name, I would click to add their surname.

This is a key step for families that share a surname and were enumerated in the same household. I didn't do it for Carrie, but I did do it for many other ancestors who had folks with same surname in that HH. 

Otherwise, the search system can't find these people by their full names. Remember, they would have been enumerated with a dash for surname, followed by a given name. My transcription replaces the dash with the actual surname.

"How do you spell that?" is the #52Ancestors prompt by Amy Johnson Crow for week #15.

1950 US Census: What Works?

Trying to find my ancestors in the 1950 US Census, I settled on a number of techniques that work well.

• For best results, locate the ancestor's Enumeration District. Don't know the ED but have an address? Use Ancestry's 1950 Census District Finder tool (link is on the home page). It's the fastest way to transform a street address into an ED. It also takes you to the ED maps in case you want to look for landmarks. Read Ancestry's explanation here.
• Using NARA's search interface, enter the location (state/county). Then add the ED. Read the description of the ED. In example above, I'm showing ED 60-36 for Maury County, TN. The ED description matches where I wanted to search.
• Add head of house as surname given name. In example above, this would be Hanes Bernard (his name is Bernard Hanes, but listing in Census is by surname first).
  
• This should narrow your search to a single ED and the correct page, as shown at top. Even though the automated indexing didn't correctly transcribe the given name, it did make the find for me.

What if this doesn't work? Remove the name and only search for the ED. Then browse the ED, page by page, to find your ancestor. I had to do this in more than one instance, but having the correct ED meant I browsed perhaps a dozen pages in.

Why isn't my ancestor shown in the right place?

Lots of people weren't home when the enumerator visited. April 1st was a Saturday in 1950 and some folks were out! 

If the person wasn't home, the enumerator would usually note on that address line, sending you to "sheet 71, line 3" or something similar to find the person who would ordinarily be at that address. Always check pages at the end of the ED. 

Starting with sheet 71, enumerators listed people who they interviewed on a subsequent visit. I've seen as many as 10 additional pages for callbacks in a single large ED.  Check the end of every ED if you don't find your ancestor where expected.

Download the page

Download the Census page showing your ancestor so you can study it further and even upload to your family tree. To do this, look at top right corner of the image of that page in the ED (see above example). Click on the three vertical dots and then click on the word download. 

Once the page downloads, rename that page so you know what it is. In this case, I named the file Hanes_Bernard_1950Census.jpg. Then I put it into a dedicated 1950 US Census folder on my desktop. Later, I'll copy it into my "Hanes" genealogy folder and upload it to my various family trees.

Happy hunting! I'm still looking for more ancestors and then will widen my search for FAN club members. 

PS: Here's what blogger Amanda Pape suggests: "If the ED that Ancestry's 1950 Census District Finder tool turns out to be the wrong ED (and that has happened to me a lot, particularly in large cities like Houston and Chicago), then use the Steve Morse tools (that you've blogged about before). I've also had some luck, when the Ancestry ED is wrong, just searching by state, county (or city/county), and just the surname (if unique enough) or the HOH surname & first name combo. I'll usually try that first before moving on to Steve Morse." 

Really Last-Minute News about the 1950 US Census Release

The US National Archives held a very informative webinar on Wednesday, revealing for the first time what the search interface will look like when NARA releases the 1950 US Census on April 1st. 

Search example

Shown above, one of the search screen examples provided by NARA. I added the title to the slide, the thunderbolt (to show the name "John Doe" being searched), and the red boxes (to show two of the results that match the search). 

We can search by surname only, by given name only, or by both. We can add a location (state, county, city, and/or Enumeration District number) to narrow the search. 

We can view the results as a list or in a grid...we can view more than 25 results on one screen...we can click on the "Population Schedules" button to view that ED's pages for a result that looks promising. 

You can watch the NARA video here -- and don't miss the comments in the chat, where we learned two absolutely key details.

Name index not available for bulk download!

NARA will not make its basic name index available for bulk download along with the population schedules. As a result, Family Search, Ancestry, My Heritage, and other genealogy groups that download the entire 1950 Census will not have access to NARA's name index as the foundation for creating their own. 

On April 1, all of these sites will have the 1950 US Census available for browsing. However, they will have NO index for some time (weeks? months?). 

Bottom line: If you want to try a search instead of browsing for ancestors, NARA's site will be the only game in town for now.

Improve the index by adding surnames!

NARA will allow members of the public to improve the index in various ways. Of course, we can correct names that are not spelled correctly. But we can also add surnames to household members who only had a dash, because their surnames are the same as the head of household.

Here's why that is a big help. The automated indexing transcribed each line as it appeared. Let's say one household, a mother and two children, looks like this:

Smith, Mary A. 

_____, John

_____, Tessie

Neither John nor Tessie will have a surname transcribed, because their surname is the same as the head of household and therefore the enumerator was told to only put a dash. The technology used for indexing doesn't read the dash, only the names "John" and "Tessie."

Now NARA will allow members of the public to add the surname to those two children. This will help anyone looking for John Smith and Tessie Smith to find them by their surname AND given name. Otherwise, we'll need to use NARA's recommended strategy of searching for head of household to find Mary A. Smith and then look in her household for the children. 

My plan for April 1st and beyond

My approach on day 1 will be to search NARA first by name/location. Then I'll locate the ED and browse the images for people who don't turn up in my name search results. (NOTE: NARA says it is ready for a surge and doesn't expect the 1950 Census site will crash. Fingers crossed!)

I can browse images on NARA or on any of the big genealogy sites, but I can search only on NARA in the beginning.

I've also signed up with Ancestry.com to be notified when it has completed indexing states in which my ancestors lived. Take a look at the Ancestry page for more info here. 

Plus I'll be keeping an eye on MyHeritage's 1950 US Census plans as they develop. The company just announced its Census Helper tool, which will identify ancestors on your family tree that are likely to be included in the 1950 US Census. 

Want to help index this Census? FamilySearch is inviting volunteers to join the project and speed the process along. Thousands have already signed up. Read more here.

1950 US Census Prep: Using ED Maps and Descriptions

A good number of my ancestors lived in New York City--many in the Bronx, some in Queens, some in Brooklyn, a few in Manhattan, but none in Staten Island. 

As I get ready to find them in the 1950 US Census when the records are released in April, I'm finding I have to dig even deeper to determine the specific Enumeration District for a few of these Big Apple residents. This holds true for other big cities, by the way, as I've discovered searching for Cleveland ancestors.

Details matter

Here's a mini case study featuring ED maps and ED descriptions. My cousins lived at 3706 72d Street in Queens, New York. But studying the map, I see that the borough of Queens also has 72d Avenue, 72d Avenue Ext, 72d Crescent, 72d Drive, 72d Lane, 72d Place, and 72d Road. 

So my first step was to be sure I entered the correct street name when using the nifty Unified Census ED Finder by Steve Morse and Joel Weintraub. 

With only the street name/number, there were too many potential Enumeration Districts for me to browse. As the site directs, I next looked at the Google map and entered a cross street (Broadway) and a back street (37th Avenue) for the block where these cousins lived. 

These two additional details narrowed the number of EDs to three. I couldn't enter a fourth cross or back street, because my cousins lived on a triangular city block. 

Go to the NARA map

My next step was to look at the National Archives map for the three EDs that were around the address. The Steve Morse site has an easy one-step process to go to the maps. Be sure you set the year to 1950. 

Once I located the map for this section of Queens, I enlarged it to read the street names. I found my cousins' address was at a location numbered as block 12 on the NARA ED map (at top). 

The little white star on image above is where my cousins lived in 1950. But the orange lines delineating the districts didn't show me precisely which ED my cousin lived in. What now?

Read the NARA map description

To further narrow the number of EDs, I clicked on the link to read the transcription of each district in turn. The description for 41-598 wasn't as close to the address as the descriptions for 41-608 and 41-880, shown here:

It wasn't enough to glance at the boundary descriptions, because 72d Street, 37th Avenue, and Broadway are listed on both ED 41-608 and ED 41-880.

I looked more closely at the specific blocks included within each ED. Remember, the NARA map at top shows that the address is on block 12.

Block 12 is described as being within ED 41-608. So on April 1st, I'll be looking for my cousins in this single ED!

For more about the 1950 US Census release, see my summary page here. To learn more about the US National Archives ED maps and other maps of interest to genealogists, see here.

Mapping Mme Jennie Farkas in the 1950 US Census

With the public release of the 1950 U.S. Census coming soon on April 1, I'm  figuring out where each ancestor lived in or around the year 1950 and then translating the street address into an Enumeration District, with the help of maps.

Why a map when there will be a surname index?

A rudimentary surname index will be available when NARA releases the 1950 US Census digitally on April 1st. Family Search and Ancestry and others are working to index the records, as well. 

However, these initial indexes are unlikely to be complete or accurate, despite all the technology and attention they will represent. 

So I'll want to identify the Enumeration District in which each ancestor lived. That will enable me to browse the ED records to locate my ancestors if they don't pop up in surname search results. 

Great Aunt Jennie, the dressmaker 

Today I'm mapping great aunt Jennie Katz Farkas (1886-1974), the husband of my maternal great uncle Alex Farkas (1885-1948)--he was my maternal grandma's older brother. 

With Alex's death cert in hand, I know exactly where in New York City they were living in 1948. But as a widow, would Jennie be living in the same place?

I searched the 1949 directory for Manhattan, hoping to find Jennie on her own. There she was at the same address as in 1948 (see image at top). I was surprised but not flabbergasted to see her listed as Farkas, Jennie Mme. 

All of my Farkas cousins know the story that Jennie was a peerless professional dressmaker with an expert eye for detail. She could study a high-fashion photo in Vogue and then recreate the dress on her own. She was renowned within the family for making beautiful gowns for her sisters-in-law when they married (and for bridesmaids and matrons of honor, as well). 

I was aware she had a thriving business in dressmaking, but I didn't realize she called herself "Mademoiselle Jennie Farkas" for professional reasons. Um, she was born in Hungary! Still, she appears as Mme Jennie Farkas in Manhattan city directories throughout the 1940s. What an interesting detail to add to her story.

Mapping Jennie's Enumeration District

To map Jennie's ED, I went to the Unified 1950 Census ED Finder developed by Steve Morse and Joel Weintraub. If you haven't already bookmarked their page, add it to your list of key sites as you prep for the 1950 Census release! 

I used the easy drop-down menus to enter Jennie's 1949 address (a proxy for her 1950 address), as shown on the image directly above. This was a busy, crowded Manhattan area, and I was careful to choose 80th Street West. (FYI: An address on the East would be in a different ED. This east/west situation is a factor in many cities and towns, as is north/south, so pay close attention to these details in your own searches.) 

With only the street address entered, there would too many EDs to browse--see the listing at bottom of the above image. I needed to further narrow the number of EDs by selecting cross streets and back streets. On the ED Finder page, "See Google Map" is the place to click to see the map. 

 I clicked to view the map and found her address indicated by the red marker. It was easy to spot the three cross/back streets (I circled them above). 

One by one, I entered the cross/back streets into the ED Finder with the convenient drop-down menus to guide me. 

As the image below indicates, checking the map and having the four street boundaries surrounding Jennie's address allowed me to narrow down the number of EDs to only one: 31-803. That's the ED I'll browse on April 1st if Jennie doesn't show up using the surname index for the 1950 US Census.

"Maps" is this week's genealogy prompt in Amy Johnson Crow's yearlong #52Ancestors challenge. 

Lisa Gorrell kindly sent a link to the NARA map for Jennie's ED, which is one of many hundreds of EDs in Manhattan. Jennie's ED is way at top left of the image at left. 

Thanks, Lisa!

For more about the 1950 US Census and prepping for its release, please see my summary page here.

Prepping for the 1950 US Census: NARA ED Maps

I've been researching the street addresses and Enumeration Districts of dozens of ancestors, with the goal of being able to browse for these folks when the 1950 US Census pages are released (unindexed) on April 1. Most of these ancestors lived in urban areas, although a few were in rural areas.

Unified Census ED Finder doesn't cover every street in every town

Researching ancestors in rural Upper Sandusky, Wyandot County, Ohio, I was unable to find the town in Steve Morse and Joel Weintraub's Unified Census ED Finder tool. This is the easy-to-use tool I normally use to transform a street address into an Enumeration District. 

As shown in image at top, Wyandot is one of the few counties where the Steve Morse/Joel Weintraub tool has no provision for town or street address input. See FAQs 302 and 403 for an explanation.**

Because I do have a street address, I've learned to use National Archives's Enumeration District maps to locate the appropriate ED.

NARA Enumeration District maps to the rescue

To reach the ED maps via Steve Morse's site, click on the link titled "Viewing ED Maps in One Step." It's at the very bottom of the page (see brown arrow). Or click to reach that link here. 

At the Steve Morse link, once you enter the state, county, and town, you'll be taken to a page like the following:

Now you can choose the NARA viewer OR go directly to the images on the NARA server. Both work, just read the advantages and disadvantages to see which you prefer. 

Here is the small version of the NARA map for Upper Sandusky, Wyandot County, OH. I clicked to enlarge the map and looked around each ED until I located the ancestor's street address on West Bigelow.

As a result, I discovered my husband's great aunt Etta Blanche Steiner Rhuark's residence in ED 88-27. Next April, I'll be browsing pages of that ED to find her.

Let me call attention to Beth Finch McCarthy's excellent graphic about preparing to browse the 1950 US Census, including the use of NARA maps.

--

**Joel Weintraub explains: The National Archives has stated that urban areas of 5 or more EDs should have online 1950 ED maps, although I've seen such maps with less than that. Our One-Step criteria for street indexes are the location should have 5 or more EDs and also have 5,000 or more people. Upper Sandusky according to my information had 4,397 people in 1950 so I didn't include it on my list of areas to be done. We still have a database for searching ED definitions. In your case.... go to the Unified Tool, pick Ohio, pick from the city list "Other (specify)" which opens a box where you can type Upper Sandusky. You should then see 7 EDs with that name on the their ED transcribed description... on the lower left. Click on "more details" and you should see the ED transcribed definitions for each of the seven which also may help determine the exact ED wanted.

Writing About a Civil War Ancestor to Engage Readers

Union Christian College

Researching my husband's Union Army ancestors, I'm trying to wring every detail from every source to make these brief family history profiles come alive and engage readers.

Even though my main focus is their Civil War experiences, I want to portray them as real people with real lives and show descendants how family history and American history are intertwined.

Jacob Wright Larimer's Early Years

Today I've been looking at Jacob Wright Larimer (1846-1876), who was my husband's first cousin, four times removed.

From Census documentation, land records, vital records, and newspaper research, I learned Jacob was the next-to-youngest child of Moses Larimer and Nancy Blosser Larimer. Moses was himself the son of an "Ohio fever" pioneer, going on to become an Indiana pioneer farmer.

Unfortunately, Moses died at age 53, leaving his widow Nancy with two teen sons and two teen daughters at home. Seeing a non-family "farm laborer" also in the household during the 1860 Census, I conclude that the Larimers hired someone to help Jacob and his brother work the land.

Civil War History and Family History

According to Civil War chronology, President Abraham Lincoln called for more Union recruits in December of 1864. Jacob and his brother were among the Hoosiers who responded: They enlisted in January of 1865, among the 1,013 men who formed the new regiment known as 151st Indiana Volunteer Infantry.

I consulted multiple sources to follow Jacob and learn what this Union Army regiment did during the Civil War: Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana; Wikipedia; Indiana Historical Bureau; National Park Service; and Fold3 records.

Jacob and his regiment never engaged in any battles, although the 151st Indiana Infantry did serve on patrols and on garrison duty in Tennessee. Jacob was mustered out in Nashville in September of 1865.

For other ancestors who had extensive Civil War experience, I've pieced together their military actions in a way very similar to the case study provided by NARA here.

Jacob's Post-War Life

From BMD and Census records, I found that Jacob returned home and married Susanna Puterbaugh on November 25, 1866. The couple, both in their twenties, had a son and a daughter (plus a third child who didn't live to adulthood). They made their home in Peru, Indiana.

The 1870 Census showed Jacob working as a sewing machine agent. This was interesting because he came from a long line of farmers. On the other hand, sewing machines for the home were fairly new and increasingly popular, so this sounds like a good career move.

Another clue was more surprising: Through Ancestry, I found Jacob listed in the 1871-1872 yearbook for Union Christian College. UCC was a coeducational college that offered four courses of study: academic  (literature, math, history, writing), classical (Latin, Greek, related history, higher math, earth sciences), scientific  (chemistry, physiology, higher math, languages), and music (primarily piano but "vocal music is taught gratis.")


College and Civil War Pension

How did a married man with a family find the money and time to pursue an academic course of study at college? According to the yearbook, tuition for one term was $6 (worth $126 in today's dollars).

In addition, the yearbook states: "Soldiers who were disabled in the defense of our Government, during the late rebellion...are entitled to instruction free of charge."

Even though I have no record of Jacob Wright Larimer claiming invalid status, it is possible he could demonstrate to the college that he was disabled and therefore entitled to free tuition. And then there's a question about distance: Using online mapping, I calculated that the college was 180 miles from Jacob's home. Would Jacob really be able to remain away from his family for months at a time in the early 1870s, when his children were under the age of ten?

Sadly, Jacob died at the age of 29 in May of 1876. His Civil War Pension record indicates that his widow Susannah filed for his benefits. Given Jacob's early death (alas, no death cert and so far, no obit), I wonder whether some disability stemming from his military service contributed to his early death.

Soon, widow Susannah found work as a seamstress. Knowing that her late husband's occupation was sewing machine agent, perhaps she used one of his sewing machines to support her two children?

1950 Census: Infant Card Innovation

Did you know about the 1950 Census Infant Cards?

When the 1950 US Census is released in April, 2022, we will NOT be able to see a new innovation introduced that year: Infant Cards.**

Here's the Census Bureau's explanation: "An infant card had to be completed for each baby born after January 1, 1950 (since experience had shown that babies are easily missed)."

The idea was to have enumerators ask specifically about any baby born in January, February, or March of 1950. This is in addition to enumerating the baby by name in the regular population schedule page. Below is a sample Infant Card.

Sample Infant Card from 1950 Census

Why are Infant Cards so valuable? Let me count the ways!

• When listing the baby's name, enumerators were told to "check the spelling with the informant." Well, that alone is an improvement over the days when enumerators simply wrote down whatever they thought they heard!
• The card asks whether father is enumerated in the same household as the infant--and if yes, name, age, occupation and industry of father. If no father in the household, no father info will be written on the Infant Card. A good clue to be followed up.
• Exact date of birth of this baby. I'll be sending for birth certs!
• Name of hospital, place of birth (the assumption is clearly that the infant will not be a home birth).
• Maiden name of mother. Yippeeeee! 
• Age of mother, education of mother (meaning highest grade finished).

Question #17 is very important for spotting gaps in families: It asks about the order of birth for this infant. Is this the 1st, 2d, 3d, etc. child the mother has ever borne?

In this question, the enumerator was to count all live births, including children who died.

Being a twin, I paid attention to the fine print here: If the Infant Card listed a twin, the birth order was to be recorded for each one separately. Instructions say not to call both twins "1st child" of the mother.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, according to the U.S. National Archives, infant cards will not be released when the 1950 population schedule is released in 2022. The National Archives does not have the cards--in fact, the cards don't seem to exist at this point.

For links to the rest of my #1950Census series, please check the summary page here.

Great Uncle Mayer Petitioned for Naturalization 99 Years Ago

Declaration of Intention dated 6 June 1918

Now that my mother's address book has helped me trace several "elusive" siblings of my paternal grandpa Isaac Burk, I've sent for documents to fill out their life stories. I began with my great uncle Mayer Berg (1883-1981), who was a year younger than my grandpa.

One lesson learned is: NARA doesn't have everybody's naturalization documents. A day after I submitted an online request and payment for Mayer Berg's naturalization papers, the archivists emailed me. They did not have Mayer's paperwork, but the Bronx authorities probably did. Thanks for the tip!

Another lesson learned: Pick up the phone before mailing a check. I called the Bronx County Clerk's office, and the officials kindly confirmed that they held Mayer's documents. I got a "package deal" because the petition and declaration were in a single file, so I didn't have to send for them separately (which would have cost more).

Snail mail was faster than usual: I received Mayer's naturalization documents in barely a week. It's dated June 6, 1918.

Just think, this great uncle was standing in a Bronx courthouse 99 years ago, filling out his final paperwork, declaration of intention for US citizenship. Mayer took his Oath of Allegiance on November 23, 1920. I'm going to give these documents to Mayer's granddaughter when we meet this week!