I am ridiculously excited for the release of the 1950 U.C. Census tomorrow. It is not the lure of finding ancestors. The only ancestors I'll probably find are my parents with my siblings and me; my maternal grandparents; aunts and uncles; and grand-aunts and -uncles. So many ancestors had already died by 1950.
The excitement is because this will be my first census--the first one in which my name appears. Had the census day been January 1 instead of April 20, I would have had to wait another 10 years to find myself in the census.. (And who knows what condition I'll be in 10 years from now, whether I'll still have my faculties about me or whether I'll even be alive. One never knows.)
I was pleased to learn of Ancestry's 1950 Census district finder because it will find small towns and locations in townships, and probably in rural areas, too, unlike some of the other census district finders. I lived in a small village, Mineral Ridge, within the boundaries of a township, Weathersfield, about three miles away from the nearest town. The census district is 78-208.
That orange marker on the map is the approximate location of the home where we lived. Skip right to the next block, about halfway into it, and that's where my grandparents lived. It's possible that my mom's youngest sister was still living at home. She was 22 at the time of the census..
This post lists the questions on the 1950 Census. I hope my parents responded to all of them and, even more, I hope that my father was on line 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, or 29, in which case he would have been asked an additional 18 questions. I anticipate finding that my father was 37, my mother 34 (turning 35 in June, 1950), my brother was 10 (turning 11 in May), and my sister was 6 (turning 7 in October). I'm eager to learn the responses to the other questions.
Are you ready to find yourself or ancestors in the 1950 U.S. Census?
-–Nancy.
Copyright © 2022 Nancy Messier. All Rights Reserved.
Do not copy or use any content from this blog without written permission from the owner.
.
In the first 1.5 hours after the 1950 Census became available, I found 24 family members in 9 households, including my then-8yo husband. I stopped because I needed to sleep, but I will be back at it today. I'm also excited about Ancestry's ED finder, but I can tell you it is not as accurate in large cities (Houston, Chicago, so far) as the Steve Morse tool.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Amanda! It wasn't until about bedtime (about 1 a.m. EDT) that I realized that I could already look at the census images. I went through the ED for the location where my family lived and found us, my grandparents, and a few aunts/uncles/cousins. I'll be looking again today, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up about the Steve Morse tool being more accurate for large cities. I'm grateful to know that.