1950s Census Records Available

[bears]

Every 72 years, they release the census records to the public, so the 1950s Census Records are now available and searchable here: 1950census.archives.gov/

The interface is a bit of a pain, but I was able to find both sides of my family within about 20 minutes of searching. The fact that my grandmothers were living with their parents (who had different last names from them) at the time, made searching a bit easier.  It's really cool to access history like this!

[Jalapeñomel]

OMG This is super cool!

[redheadbaker]

I can't figure this thing out.

[icedcoffee]

So cool! I need about 5 years later to track any of my family. Really neat.

[lea]

Well, I know what my dad is doing this weekend (his hobby is family genealogy).

[Scout'sHonor]

Apr 1, 2022 16:44:39 GMT -5 lea said:

Well, I know what my dad is doing this weekend (his hobby is family genealogy).

It’s one of mine too and I already spent this afternoon on it! If anyone needs help, I’d be happy to assist.
It uses machine learning to guess at the names and is pretty good, but there are definitely some mistakes. If you know where the family was in the 1940 census and they didn’t move, you can find the same enumeration district pages and search through.

[bears]

I just found my father-in-law and his parents. I'm happy I managed to find them, as his father was listed as "Army" instead of "Irving" in the AI translation of 1950s cursive.

I currently cannot find anyone on my mother-in-law's side.

It's been really cool to look up where they used to live on Google Maps, since it looks like most of the buildings are still standing.

[redheadbaker]

OK, I think I found my grandfather. This is cool!

[pugz]

My maiden name is uncommon but having a heck of a time

[Deleted]

So interesting. I've found a bunch of my dad's family already. I ended up submitting corrections to fix all of them though because they were read wrong.

[katfco]

I have no idea where my grandfather was in 1950 because he was in the Air Force. And it seems his name is really common

[af1212]

Very cool. I was able to find my grandparents, aunt and uncle, as well as both sides of my husbands grandparents.

Only one I can’t find right now is my mom’s mom and dad’s families. I’ll look tomorrow on a computer.

[macmars45]

So cool. I found my paternal grandpa so far.

[kershnic]

I found my dad's family easily, but I have been searching forever and can't find my mom's family, boo. I know the state but not the city, so maybe it will be easier if my mom knows that....

[kershnic]

My dad was a baby in 1950, and is listed, but has an X in column 6 that seems to be blank for most others. Anybody know what this?

[Pom]

I found my maternal grandparents and my mom (age 13). Pretty cool!

[sent]

My family didn't arrive in the US for another 20+ years, so I decided to search my landlord who has an uncommon last name. I don't see him but the tool is still really neat. So much cursive!

[basilosaurus]

I'd thought they were always public since I've found so many for family members. As I write that, I realize so many reasons why they wouldn't be.

My dad's cousin would research genealogy in her manic phases. She died pre-internet, and I can only imagine what she would have done, but I've picked up the torch during some of my insomniac phases that can resemble mania. The cousin traveled to Ireland. To SLC as they are known for their records. familysearch, anyone?

The records can be really interesting to see when your family members might have lived together. Or were boarders. Less than fully literate as spellings will change from one decade to the next. (argument for more actual census workers. Obligatory fuck t*ump here)

If you do get inspired to look into such things, there is so much that's been made available online. Birth and death records. Baptisms and weddings (those were often only records of birth). Draft records. Ellis island immigration cards. Even pictures of headstones. I learned cod of the sister who died before grandpa, the "oldest," was born was strep throat which we'd all grown up knowing, incl gpa, was tragic and unexplained, which, pre-abx was unexplained. And, yes, of course, the more wasp-y the family the more illuminating these things are. 

[charlatti]

Tips on searching? When I search, I can only see a picture of the for for the very first result, and then just the questions after that without any more info. Maybe it’s not iPad friendly?
ETA: I figured that out (tap population schedule to see the pictures) but still can’t get my family to show up. I know where they lived but the results aren’t bringing them up. Found 1940s census records easily through this one, though: www.familysearch.org/en/

[af1212]

Apr 2, 2022 6:18:47 GMT -5 charlatti said:

Tips on searching? When I search, I can only see a picture of the for for the very first result, and then just the questions after that without any more info. Maybe it’s not iPad friendly?

I have been doing it on my phone so I think it is fine on the iPad.

[af1212]

Apr 2, 2022 3:52:30 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

I'd thought they were always public since I've found so many for family members. As I write that, I realize so many reasons why they wouldn't be.

My dad's cousin would research genealogy in her manic phases. She died pre-internet, and I can only imagine what she would have done, but I've picked up the torch during some of my insomniac phases that can resemble mania. The cousin traveled to Ireland. To SLC as they are known for their records. familysearch, anyone?

The records can be really interesting to see when your family members might have lived together. Or were boarders. Less than fully literate as spellings will change from one decade to the next. (argument for more actual census workers. Obligatory fuck t*ump here)

If you do get inspired to look into such things, there is so much that's been made available online. Birth and death records. Baptisms and weddings (those were often only records of birth). Draft records. Ellis island immigration cards. Even pictures of headstones. I learned cod of the sister who died before grandpa, the "oldest," was born was strep throat which we'd all grown up knowing, incl gpa, was tragic and unexplained, which, pre-abx was unexplained. And, yes, of course, the more wasp-y the family the more illuminating these things are. 

They are released after 72 years.

[georgeglass]

Apr 2, 2022 6:39:29 GMT -5 af1212 said:

Apr 2, 2022 3:52:30 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

I'd thought they were always public since I've found so many for family members. As I write that, I realize so many reasons why they wouldn't be.

My dad's cousin would research genealogy in her manic phases. She died pre-internet, and I can only imagine what she would have done, but I've picked up the torch during some of my insomniac phases that can resemble mania. The cousin traveled to Ireland. To SLC as they are known for their records. familysearch, anyone?

The records can be really interesting to see when your family members might have lived together. Or were boarders. Less than fully literate as spellings will change from one decade to the next. (argument for more actual census workers. Obligatory fuck t*ump here)

If you do get inspired to look into such things, there is so much that's been made available online. Birth and death records. Baptisms and weddings (those were often only records of birth). Draft records. Ellis island immigration cards. Even pictures of headstones. I learned cod of the sister who died before grandpa, the "oldest," was born was strep throat which we'd all grown up knowing, incl gpa, was tragic and unexplained, which, pre-abx was unexplained. And, yes, of course, the more wasp-y the family the more illuminating these things are. 

They are released after 72 years.

Just reading that 1950 was 72 years ago made me literally choke.

[One Girl In All The World]

I was poking around trying to find my mom’s family and accidentally ended up finding the map of my neighborhood that was used. My house would have been built about five years later.

ETA@@@@@


It was cool to show my daughter that her school was there at the time, but my son’s didn’t exist yet.

Eta2 sorry for forgetting the @@@

[bears]

My parents are away and I can't wait to discuss what I found. A few surprises:
-My father's grandma was born in the US (I always thought she was from Italy)
-My father's mother never finished high shool (she was one of the sample people so there was more information on her)
-My grandma lived with my grandfather, my uncle, and HER mother at the time, but she is insisting that she didn't live there. Very weird!

I'm having a hard time finding my MIL and the rest of her family. I think it would be fun to find her aunt's real first name, as she has refused to tell us (she told us it was an "ugly" name).

[fuckyourcouch]

Apr 2, 2022 9:23:39 GMT -5 bears said:

My parents are away and I can't wait to discuss what I found. A few surprises:
-My father's grandma was born in the US (I always thought she was from Italy).

I had the opposite surprise - we already knew grandparents on both sides were born in Russia, but we saw in the records that grandma on my mom's side was not naturalized! News to us lol.

[redheadbaker]

Apr 1, 2022 19:20:56 GMT -5 redheadbaker said:

OK, I think I found my grandfather. This is cool!

I sent the page to my dad to confirm and learned some things about that side of the family that I never knew before --

@@@@
my great-grandmother died giving birth to my grandfather, so the woman my dad called Grandmother was actually his great-aunt. After his wife's death, my great-grandfather moved in with his sister, who raised my grandfather along with her kids.

[basilosaurus]

Apr 2, 2022 6:39:29 GMT -5 af1212 said:

Apr 2, 2022 3:52:30 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

I'd thought they were always public since I've found so many for family members. As I write that, I realize so many reasons why they wouldn't be.

My dad's cousin would research genealogy in her manic phases. She died pre-internet, and I can only imagine what she would have done, but I've picked up the torch during some of my insomniac phases that can resemble mania. The cousin traveled to Ireland. To SLC as they are known for their records. familysearch, anyone?

The records can be really interesting to see when your family members might have lived together. Or were boarders. Less than fully literate as spellings will change from one decade to the next. (argument for more actual census workers. Obligatory fuck t*ump here)

If you do get inspired to look into such things, there is so much that's been made available online. Birth and death records. Baptisms and weddings (those were often only records of birth). Draft records. Ellis island immigration cards. Even pictures of headstones. I learned cod of the sister who died before grandpa, the "oldest," was born was strep throat which we'd all grown up knowing, incl gpa, was tragic and unexplained, which, pre-abx was unexplained. And, yes, of course, the more wasp-y the family the more illuminating these things are. 

They are released after 72 years.

Yes. That was in the OP. As I said my first thought was thought they were public. And then I thought of a host of reasons why they weren't. 

And if this inspires others to look further, I was simply sharing how many things are online.

[bernsteincat]

Thanks for sharing! I found my maternal grandfather and my husband’s maternal grandfather.

[lea]

I still haven’t been able to find any of my grandparents/parents.

Do I even exist? 😮

[1yeartogo]

How are people seeing all these details? All I see are age and job info.