As you are preparing to search the 1950 U. S. Census after its release on 1 April 2022, one of the things you can do is find out which of your ancestors were alive in 1950 and might have been counted. We’ll show you some simple steps on how to do this!
Once you have determined who was alive, you can go even further and determine where they might have been living or what their birth date is, so when you start searching the records, you can easily find your ancestor’s family in the census.
First Things First: Who Was Alive in 1950?
The easiest way to find out which of your ancestors were alive in 1950 is to look at your family tree and follow the steps below. (If you don’t already have a tree, click here to connect to the shared FamilySearch Family Tree for free. FamilySearch may know a lot about your ancestors already!)
1. Log In
Log in to your favorite family tree software, and navigate to your family tree.
2. Change Views
Play with your tree to display your ancestors from the last 6 generations or so. On FamilySearch, you can see all of these direct ancestors at once with the handy fan chart view. Simply go to the FamilySearch Tree, and from the menu in the top left corner, select Fan Chart. On another family tree program, you may need to switch views or toggle open different lines to find these ancestors.
3. Skim the Birth and Death Years
Look at the birth and death years for your ancestors to see who was born before 1950 and who died after 1950. Most family tree chart software will display the birth and death dates of your ancestors in their tree views. With the FamilySearch fan chart, for example, you can use the birth and death years shown just under each ancestor name to see who was alive in 1950.
Tip: Use screenshots in simple ways to keep yourself organized. When doing this for myself, I did a quick screen grab of my FamilySearch chart and copied it into a paint program on my computer. I then used the fill tool to color in each ancestor that was alive in 1950.
Remember that the census was taken on April 1, 1950. When you find ancestors who were born or died during the year of 1950 itself, you’ll need to get into the details of that person and see if he or she was alive on the date when the census was taken.
Consider Collateral Family Lines
When I look at my newly-marked screenshot showing which ancestors were alive in 1950, I am also aware that their children and siblings would possibly have been alive at that time as well. It will be fun to keep an eye out for them in the 1950 census too.
Where Were They? And Other Information
When the 1950 census is released, a large indexing project will take place to make the records easily searchable. Once that is complete, you should be able to log in to sites like FamilySearch or Ancestry to type in your ancestors’ names and find them in the census.
More information about your ancestors—such as what their birth year was or where they were living—will help you find them more easily and accurately. If you don’t find your ancestor’s record at first when the 1950 records are released, knowing their approximate location will also help you search the census records by enumeration district.
Finding this extra information may be more challenging if it isn’t already listed on your ancestor’s page in your family tree. Here are some tips.
Different ways to find a person’s birth year:
- Search for the person in the FamilySearch Family Tree
- Search for the person in the Historical Records section of FamilySearch
- Birth, marriage, and death records usually note the birth or age at the time of the event.
- Family records may provide the year of birth for a person.
Use these tips to determine where your ancestor might have been living in 1950:
- Use the 1940 census to see where they were living 10 years previously.
- Speak with older relatives.
- Use information from attached sources in the FamilySearch Family Tree.
- Use city directories to obtain exact street addresses for each family.
- Find city directories in public libraries or online at Ancestry.com.
Once you have addresses for your ancestors, you will be extra prepared for finding your ancestors in the 1950 census records, as you’ll be able to narrow down where to look for digital images in the collection if that becomes necessary.
Aside from having a searchable index, the collection will be broken down by state, county, city, and enumeration district. One way to find the exact enumeration district for your ancestors is to go to the website of Stephen P. Morse and Joel D. Weintraub. Here you will be able to select the state, county, and city and see detailed maps that show the 1950 enumeration district numbers for the area where your ancestors lived.
Looking Forward
FamilySearch will be inviting volunteers to review an every-name index of the census records to verify that the index is complete and accurate. This will make it easy to find your family in the 1950 census. However, if the family is not found, you may need to employ the tips above to find your family.
The 1950 census is an exciting look into the lives of your ancestors just a few years after the end of World War II. Prosperity and opportunity were in abundance in 1950, with families moving into newly created suburbs and having children at record levels. With 1950 census records, hopefully you’ll be able to find your family and get a glimpse into their life, who was living at home that day, what their occupations were, and where they were born.
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