“Almost all of us are familiar with the recently completed 2020 census, but its most interesting details will be hidden in the dark until the privacy rights expire in 2092,” said David Rencher, Chief Genealogy Officer for FamilySearch. “That’s why the 1950 US census is so exciting,” Rencher added. “The wait is over.” Confidentiality laws protect the release of “manuscript” census schedules. Manuscript census schedules are the original forms on which census takers record information on households and residents, which means data is identifiable to a specific household and individual. These manuscript schedules are kept confidential for 72 years, after which point the National Archives and Records Administration makes them available to the public. Prior to the 72-year-mark only collective demographic (population) data is released. Thus, on April 1, 2022, the 72-year-old 1950 manuscript census data was released.
Consider the treasure trove: the 1950 census provides a snapshot of more than 150 million people living in the United States at the time. In addition to name, age, gender, race, education, and place of birth, census takers also asked individuals for their level of education, occupation, and income. This historic census comes a few years after Americans had returned to work following World War II and just months before America would enter the Korean War. Many people in the 1950 census had lived through the flu pandemic of 1918, World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. They had witnessed the birth of radio and television, as well as the devastation of the atomic bomb.
Unless you know the state, county, and street address where they lived in 1950, locating family members without an accurate name index will be daunting. Fortunately, a dedicated army of online volunteers is tackling that challenge through a community effort hosted by FamilySearch, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping each of us find our ancestors. Of course, for fun you don’t have to limit your searches to family members. Can you imagine the ever-popular Chuck Norris as a 10-year-old? Wonder if he was already preparing for his tough-guy persona? Carlos Ray “Chuck” Norris first appeared in the 1940 census about 3 weeks after his birth. Or how about Louisiana-born Boston Celtics great Bill Russell? He would have been 16 years old in 1950, just 6 years before being drafted as the number 2 pick in the NBA. Then there’s the “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin, who would turn 8 that year. She may have already begun singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, but she wouldn’t leave home to pursue her career in music for another decade.
Supported by genealogy giants Ancestry and FamilySearch International, local and national genealogy and historical societies, and many other deeply committed organizations, this project is rallying hundreds of thousands of volunteers to publish a high-quality, searchable online index of every single name found in the 1950 census. This grassroots approach is hardly new—volunteers also indexed every census from 1790 to 1940. But this time, rather than starting from scratch, volunteers will review Ancestry’s computer-generated index using groundbreaking handwriting recognition and cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies. So that no one slips between the digital cracks, the comprehensive human review of the automated index will verify that the data is accurate and complete. Finding our parents, grandparents, or even aunts and uncles in the records is the key to unlocking their stories, and the deployment of these new technologies will simplify and speed up the process.
Who will you find in 1950? Start searching today: 1950census.archives.gov
The Bossier Parish Libraries History Center is a FamilySearch affiliate, and we are excited to get as familiar as possible with this newly-available mint of data so that we can best help our patrons research their family or other history. You can access FamilySearch and the Library Edition of ancestry.com at any BPL branch location. Come to the History Center to research or see our exhibits at 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City, LA. The History Center is open M-Th 10-8, Fri 10-6, and Sat 10-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org
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Article by: Pam Carlisle
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