1950 US Census

[Katarzyna]

The 1950 US Census is to be published in April this year according to my February Update email from Ancestry today.
I can't find a death or marriage for an uncle so hopefully will be able to find him on this census.
It's possible that some DNA matches [those now in their 70's +] will be on this census with their parents which could be helpful.

[kiterunner]

I've just read that Ancestry is going to use OCR software to create an initial index before human transcribers work on it:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/indexing-1950-census

[kiterunner]

The census is now available on Ancestry, but only to browse at the moment, no search, and only 8 states so far.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/62308/

[kiterunner]

13 states now (or territories, etc), so they are uploading it pretty quickly!

[kiterunner]

Here is the official US government site for the 1950 census with some searching already possible:

https://1950census.archives.gov/?fbclid=IwAR1lADi7OpR0dUDEO2dVgey_ZmQT3OXS57uNFH-MT0Wl3yC4fDuAmjtlL5w

[kiterunner]

But they (Ancestry) have been stuck on 14 states / territories for a few hours now.

[kiterunner]

19 states / territories on Ancestry now.

[kiterunner]

24 states / territories on Ancestry.
Edit - 30 now.
34.
Now 54, I think. Indexes "coming soon" for Delaware, Vermont and Wyoming.

[Katarzyna]

If you do not know the Enumeration District Number you may have to scroll through loads of pages. This is helpful for finding ED if you know a previous address. I knew mine either lived in Elizabeth or Linden NJ between 1940 and 1960 and had their street addresses.
You cannot search by street but you can by ED.
On the link below:

https://stevemorse.org/census/arc1940-1950edmaps.html?year=1950

It will take you to a map that is best downloaded to your computer rather than trying to use it as is on the screen as you only get either a very small or extremely large view.
You might find that the road is in more than one ED if the road is long or the ED boundary is split right down the middle of it - I had to search in four EDs but it cut down the number of EDs for the city from 21 to 4.

[kiterunner]

It looks as though all the states and territories are on Ancestry now to browse, but none indexed yet.

[kiterunner]

I am confused as to why Ancestry says indexes coming soon for Delaware, Vermont and Wyoming, but the states that you can help to index on FamilySearch at the moment are Nevada and Oregon? I thought the two sites were partners in this, so I would have thought that Nevada and Oregon would be "coming soon".

[kiterunner]

I have to admit I couldn't get anywhere with the ED maps but thankfully, Ancestry have added a "1950 Census district finder" where you can type in an address and it will show you the correct district on the map. It has worked perfectly for the two addresses that I have tried so far, and I have found some of my relatives!

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/district-map/62308

[Janet]

Thanks for that, Kite. It works for me too. I found that it would try to tell me it had no matches at first, but if I kept typing it would eventually find the right place after it saw more of the address.

Also, it took me a moment to realize that after the search stopped I had to click on the election district number. (Duh.)

There are an incredibly annoying number of records where they simply wrote something like "nobody home". I suppose it must have been in their instructions. Why?! I don't remember seeing that in other censuses. I must be missing something.

Glad you found some of your own!

EDIT:
I'm just marvelling at the number of 3-year-olds to be found (myself among them). This is the post-war baby boom that, a decade later, brought about excruciating crowding and "double-sessions" (split days) for us in high school.

[kiterunner]

Delaware and Wyoming are now searchable on Ancestry. But Vermont isn't searchable and yet it doesn't say "index coming soon" for Vermont any more either. I assume it is still coming soon but they just aren't telling us.

[kiterunner]

Vermont and American Samoa are now searchable on Ancestry, with Alaska, New Hampshire and the US Virgin Islands coming soon.

[kiterunner]

Alaska, New Hampshire and the US Virgin Islands are now searchable on Ancestry. Guam, Panama Canal Zone, Hawaii, Rhode Island and South Dakota coming soon.

[kiterunner]

Ooh, just had my first Ancestry "hint" for the 1950 census!

[JBee]

I wondered what I was doing wrong as I couldn't get any hits but then realised they haven't got Boston yet.

[kiterunner]

Guam, Overseas Islands, Panama Canal Zone, Rhode Island and South Dakota are now searchable on Ancestry. Hawaii and Indian Reservations coming soon.

[kiterunner]

Hawaii and Indian Reservations are now searchable on Ancestry. They don't say which states are coming next.

[kiterunner]

Vermont, Delaware, Washington, Indiana and Wyoming are searchable on FamilySearch. I'm not sure whether they are complete yet or not, though.

[kiterunner]

Ooh, Ancestry have made all states searchable now, although the index for most of them is just the one generated using OCR software rather than by humans. When the FamilySearch volunteers have gone through checking it, the updated index will replace the current one. But I have found my relatives in New Jersey straight away, so definitely worth a look.

[kiterunner]

I am pretty impressed with the index on Ancestry in general. Most of the time if I select someone in my tree and click Search, it is coming up with the right entry.