Was Frank Jacobs Enumerated on T-Night in the 1950 US Census?

Continuing my quest for addresses so I can browse for ancestors when the unindexed 1950 U.S. Census is released next year, I've been researching the whereabouts of my 1c2r cousin, Frank M. Jacobs (1896-1974). 

Serving overseas in World War I with the Marines, he was wounded at Soissons and lost a leg. After he recovered, he embarked on a career in advertising. As shown in the 1930 and 1940 Census (and in city directories), Frank lived in Brooklyn, New York with his mother (Eva Michalovsky Jacobs, 1869-1941). She died in July of 1941.

Did Frank leave Brooklyn?

Frank's World War II draft registration card from 1942 shows him living at the Hotel Tudor on East 42nd Street in Manhattan, very convenient for his work at Young & Rubicam on Madison Avenue. At the time, this hotel hosted a mix of transient guests and permanent residents in 598 rooms [source: NY Times, April 6, 1947, p. 120].

Frank also listed his brother Louis as his main contact and showed his brother's address as a mailing address in Brooklyn.

But was Frank staying at the Hotel Tudor for only a limited time? Because Frank died in Brooklyn in 1974, it's possible he returned to Brooklyn after retiring. Next step: Check city/phone directories.

Directory search

Many city and phone directories are available for free via the Internet Archive. I browsed for Frank in the 1949 and 1950 telephone directories for Brooklyn, New York, and found two "Jacobs, Frank" entries in both directories. 

The 1950 directory is dated March, 1950; the 1949 directory is dated September, 1949. Clearly, if one of the Frank Jacobs listed in 1950 is my cousin, the 1950 Brooklyn address would be the most updated one for me to use in finding an Enumeration District for him in the 1950 US Census.

However, Frank was fairly consistent in listing himself as "Frank M. Jacobs" so I can't be sure whether either "Frank Jacobs" in Brooklyn was my cousin. 

Of course, his brother Louis may have listed Frank as being in the Brooklyn household with him on Census Day of 1950...which I'll see as soon as I locate the brother's household in the Census. That would be a bonus!

Transient night at the Hotel Tudor?

Suppose Frank was actually living at the Hotel Tudor in Manhattan during April of 1950. He might have wanted to be close to his office rather than commute back to Brooklyn every evening.

If this is the case, I'll have to browse for Frank in the listing of people registered at the Hotel Tudor on T-Night, April 11, 1950. This was the night set aside for distributing Individual Census Report forms to guests (and residents) at hotels, to be collected by enumerators and then recorded on the Population Schedule. 

The Hotel Tudor's street address was 302-4 East 42nd Street in New York City. Using the wonderful Enumeration District Finder on SteveMorse.org, I've narrowed down the hotel's ED to 31-1266. That's where I'l begin browsing for cousin Frank when the 1950 Census is made public on April 1.

UPDATE April 15, 2022: Frank was NOT listed as being at the Hotel Tudor in the 1950 Census. I'll have to wait for the full indexes by Family Search & Ancestry & MyHeritage to search for him by name.

NOTE: For more information about the 1950 US Census, please see my full topic page here.

Local Knowledge, Part 4: Big Apple, Fine Print

Brooklyn directory dated August, 1941
had listings "corrected to July 10, 1941"

Read the fine print to date a source.

That's my local knowledge tip for today.

It actually works for every source in every location.

But in New York City, finding the date of a phone directory takes a bit more effort, because the entire city population is NOT listed in a single, massive directory. No, New York has five boroughs, each of which has its own quite large phone book.

Five boroughs, five phone books, and--just to make things more interesting--five different cutoff dates for listings. Which borough did your ancestor live in, and when? The fine print matters in the Big Apple.

August Cover Date Means . . . ?

In my previous post about searching free NYC telephone directories, I showed a sample from a 1941 Brooklyn phone directory. The snippet at top is a repeat because I want to emphasize that the cover date was August, 1941.

I clicked to the official page 1 of that directory to read the fine print. It said: "This issue corrected to July 10, 1941."

So what? If I search the August edition for an ancestor who moved to a new Brooklyn address on or after July 11, I either won't find that person or I'll find outdated information. A missing listing might mean . . . passed away, or married, or changed name, or moved away.

Or if someone's missing, it might mean no phone (ever or only for that particular year). That was the explanation when I couldn't find ancestors who, it turned out, were living as boarders in someone else's apartment. I discovered them in an earlier directory and in a later directory, both times in their own apartment.

Five Boroughs, Five Cut-off Dates for 1940

Looking at the 1940 phone directories digitized and posted online by the New York Public Library, I was surprised to see that each borough's directory had a different cut-off date for listings.

• Manhattan (1940 directory): "This issue corrected to November 9, 1939."
• Bronx (Winter 1939-40 directory): "This issue corrected to October 19, 1939."
• Brooklyn (Winter 1939-40 directory): "This issue corrected to January 4, 1940." 
• Queens (Winter 1939-40 directory): "This issue corrected to December 13, 1939." 
• Staten Island (Winter 1939-40 directory): This issue corrected to January 9, 1940."

I had ancestors in four of these five boroughs, so I needed to know where to look and check the dates of each edition. "New York City, 1940" wasn't enough.