Category Archives: Census

I Can’t Find My Family in the 1950 US Census – Now What?

In my line of work, I hear complaints/issues/calls for help whenever a genealogy website is updated or altered in any respect. That goes for all the sites, especially “big” sites such as Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org. There are also issues that pop up when certain collections are released. What is it, how do I search it, can I download it, etc…

The latest series of issues I’ve dealt with has to do with the 1950 US Population Schedule. In this blog, I’d like to discuss one solution to the “missing person” issue.



After one of the recent classes I held, a gentleman raised a problem during the Q&A session. He was about 9 years old in 1950 and was eager to see his own name as well as his parents and siblings’ names. They were nowhere to be found. His entire family was missing. Try as he might, he received no results when using his name or any of the names of those in his family. And it was in a small town in central Massachusetts. There were others in his family, aunts, uncles, and cousins who were easily found. But his entire family had vanished.

First, he assumed that they were never enumerated. Then he thought that they might have lived elsewhere during that point in time. Unlikely in either case, but he had no other theory as to where they were.

I didn’t have too much time to dedicate to him as there were many other questions from the class. I gave it my best shot by changing the search parameters to “Exact and Similar” for the names and “+/- 5 years” for the dates. I tried each name of those who should have been in the family at that time. No luck. And a “failure” in front of the entire class!

Many other hands were raised so I told him that I would use a few more strategies when I got home. Whatever the results, I told him, I’d get in touch as soon as possible.

After dinner that night, I went to the 1940 census, hoping to find someone who lived on the same street or at least close to it. I picked up a few other families who may have been neighbors and hoped they were still around in 1950.

Back to the 1950 census, I searched for his potential neighbors and got an immediate hit. It didn’t take much time at all to locate a neighbor who lived next door to the 1950 family we were trying to locate. The problem? Not only was the handwriting of the enumerator difficult to read, the family name I was looking for was not much more than dark, heavy lines of squiggle on the census record. As you can imagine, the indexer had to take their best shot at what was written in 1950.

When I found the family, their name was indexed with no vowels and what looked like letters weren’t even close to the name. But there they were! Father, mother and three kids including my diligent student, now 81 years old and very happy!

Just a quick afterthought: If this didn’t work, I would’ve gone to page 71….

Chicopee Library Named LDS Family History Center

Chicopee Public Library

Chicopee Public Library

The Chicopee Public Library at 449 Front Street in Chicopee, Massachusetts has been designated a Family History Center by the

Family History Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

Family History Center,         Salt Lake City, Utah

Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS). These are the folks who bring us billions of genealogical records to research at their website Family Search and they do it for free!

On Thursday, 19 November 2015, representatives from LDS will be presenting the library with a very generous check to support the genealogical activities there. For example, along with 5 or 6 other genealogists, I’ve been volunteering to assist library patrons with their own family research. In addition, the library sponsors a variety of genealogy research classes, lectures and presentations. I’ve been invited to participate in the presentation ceremony. 

Keep an eye on my schedule of activities at Old Bones Genealogy of New England and click the “Workshops/Classes” tab. You might also take a look at “Useful Documents” where I post dozens and dozens of genealogy documents, charts, spreadsheets, lists of genealogically oriented Facebook pages and a list of good websites to take a look at.

I hope to get a few pictures to post!

 

Using the “FAN” Club—This one was too easy!

Here’s a short hint regarding a search I was having some difficulty with. The family name is “LISIEWISCZ” which, as I’m sure you can imagine, has a wide variety of spelling possibilities. After all, “speeiln duzn’t cownt” right?

So the point of the search was to find the obituary for a 1932 death. The obituary still needs to be found, but in the course of the search, I was able to figure out a few things. First, the family had immigrated in the early 1900’s. Since the family is still living in the general area, it was safe to think that they should have appeared in the 1940 census. Bingo! Off to Ancestry.com and there’s the widow (husband died in 1932) and her 4 children ranging in age from 21 down to 14. Since all of her neighbors reported that they lived in the same house in 1935, I thought there was a good chance they were also there in 1930. So, rather than look for yet another spelling variation, I did the FAN trick: Friends, Associates and Neighbors. The easiest was a neighbor.

English:

English: (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Typical census record, un-associated with this blog post.

All of the families on this page of the 1940 census were farmers. So the next assumption was that there had to be a neighbor listed on that street who might also have appeared in the 1930 census 2 years prior to the alleged death date of the husband and father in this family. And so it was! I didn’t have to guess about “similar spellings” or “similar meanings” of the Eastern European surname. I simply used “Reynolds.” a neighbor in 1940 and, as it turns out, also a neighbor in 1930!

I’m not done yet tracking the obituary. Here’s the part where we say, “It’s not all on the internet!” Tomorrow, I’ll be at the archives and I check city directories which should get me closer to the actual death date. From there I can go to the microfilm of the local newspaper (not digitized or published on any newspaper website) and sort this one out to a happy conclusion!

Heritage Quest – The New Version

English: Seal of the United States Census Bure...

English: Seal of the United States Census Bureau. The blazon is defined here as: On a shield an open book beneath which is a lamp of knowledge emitting rays above in base two crossed quills. Around the whole a wreath of single leaves, surrounded by an outer band bearing between two stars the words “U.S. Department of Commerce” in the upper portion and “Bureau of the Census” in the lower portion, the lettering concentric with an inner beaded rim and an outer dentilated rim. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ll readily admit that I have not been a regular user of Heritage Quest.  As a matter of fact, I would avoid it.  Probably because I didn’t know how best to take advantage of it.  When I did go there, it was usually at the library where I volunteer and occasionally teach or lecture on genealogy research principles.Today, however, I watched a video that introduced me to the new version that has just been released.  I think they hit a home run with this one.  Maybe a grand slam!

The style echos what will be the newest version of Ancestry.com once they release the beta version which some of us have been able to “get friendly with” and provide feedback to Ancestry.  More on that in another post another day.  For now, I just want to encourage everyone to take a look at Heritage Quest and see all the new features.

First, it’s a little more pleasant of an atmosphere.  Maybe, for me, it’s just that it’s a refreshed website.  But the real meat of the upgrade is the collections that you will find there.

Brief rundown: The original 6 data sets are still available but PERSI and the US Serial Set will, for now, redirect you back to the original site.  Census records are now available to 1940 given the collaboration with Ancestry.com.  The census records and other sets will now display images in 256 grey scale or color rather than “bi-tonal” making them easier to read.  You will also be able to save them, download them or e-mail them in a image format.

In addition to US Census Population Schedules, images for US Territories, Military and Naval Forces records, US Indian Census Rolls 1885-1940, Mortality Schedules from 1850 to 1880, the 1880 schedules of Dependent, Delinquent and Defective classes and select Non-Population schedules from 1850 to 1880.

English: A collage of American Revolutionary W...

English: A collage of American Revolutionary War public domain images. Clockwise from top left: Battle of Bunker Hill, Death of Montgomery at Quebec, Battle of Cowpens, “Moonlight Battle”. Interlingua: Un collage de imagines in dominio public super le Guerra de Independentia del Statos Unite. Ab sinistra superior in senso horologic: Battalia de Bunker Hill, morte de Montgomery a Quebec, Battalia de Cowpens, Battalia de Capo St. Vincente. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The complete NARA M804 Revolutionary War pension and bounty land applications with “every name index” of pension apps and applicants. All NARA pension apps are included regardless of page count or genealogical value.

The image viewer appears in either basic of advanced view without the need for any special plug-ins.  Boolean operators are not allowed (AND, OR, AND NOT, etc.) but truncation and wildcards are (Eli?abeth or Sam*).  An exact match option appears when typing begins. You are also allowed to add life events or other family members to refine your search and use double quotation marks for specific phrases (“first edition”),

All documents are downloadable in PDF format.  The site includes several pages of tips and tricks for researchers.

Map of campaigns in the Revolutionary War

Map of campaigns in the Revolutionary War (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Map Guide to the US Census” has been moved to the new interactive MAPS

English: Map of US Census Bureau's geographica...

English: Map of US Census Bureau’s geographical regions Category:Census Bureau images (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

section.  The maps have their own tabs, can be saved, printed or e-mailed using a right click for the option menu.

“The Census Book” by William Dollarhide is included in the MAPS section and includes blank census forms. You may be interested in other William Dollarhide books which include “American Migration Routes 1735-1815,” “New  York State Census & Substitutes,” or “Managing a Genealogical Project” among others.  They’re all available at Amazon.com.

 

I’m not familiar enough just yet to expound on the new features or any of the improvements to what has been available for a while.  But it’s certainly worth a look!

Related articles