Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – 1950 U.S. Census Prep

Randy Seaver issued his latest mission on his blog, Genea-Musings. The question is “Are You Ready for 1950 U.S. Census?” To complete the mission, here are details of my preparations to aid in searching the 1950 U.S. Census.

I have been watching YouTube videos about the 1950 U.S. Census in addition to reading articles and blog posts on the subject. That was the fun part. Then I actually started to develop my strategy.

Instead of starting out with a table or chart, I made a simple list of people in our family trees that I want to immediately look up in the 1950 census. Under their names I made notes on their last known residence prior to 1950 from information in my files. Like Randy, I used the Unified 1950 Census ED Finder by Stephen P. Morse and Joel D. Weintraub. It was an easy task to find an ED for the majority of folks who lived in cities, For those living in smaller towns and rural areas, it was a bit challenging.

This is an example of my 1950 U.S. Census lookup list:

• Gordon & Tullie BYERS |  12 14th Court West, Birmingham AL | ED 68-210
• Aaron A. & Ola GUICE | 304 15th Ave. N, Birmingham AL | ED 68-1. Includes: Valencia GUICE; Clivetta GUICE
• Samuel & Hattie SCOVIL l | Mount Andrew, Barbour Co AL  – 1940 Census: Precinct 3, Mount Andrew;  ED 3-3; 1950 Census:  ED 3-4 and ED 3-5
• Daniel R. & Annis SALTER | 1949 Mobile City Dir., p. 817 – 1174 Texas St.; 1950 D.R. is a county agent in Greensboro, Hale County, AL per 27 Feb 1950 article in The Selma (Alabama) Times Journal.
• Arnita HARRIS Willis Jackson | 1174 Texas St., Mobile AL | ED 69-95

Once I find the people on this list in the census, I will follow my usual workflow to process the information:

1. Download and name the digital image of the census page.
2. File the digital image on my hard drive.
3. Enter the census into Legacy Family Tree genealogy software and generate a source citation.
4. Input a document item into Zotero, input the URL for the census record, copy the source citation into Notes, link to the digital image on my hard drive and apply tags.

Right now my greatest worry is that I will not find my parents in the 1950 Census, because I have never located my mother in the 1940 Census. Hopefully my grandmother in Mobile gave their information to the census taker and I will find them at her house. Maybe they will be enumerated in Greensboro, Hale County, Alabama where they actually lived. It would be very disappointing if they are missing from the 1950 Census.