Finding Your Massachusetts Family in the 1950 Census
The 1950 U.S. Federal census was released just a few days ago after a 72 year privacy delay. For the first time Americans can get a peek at their relatives in this post World War II census.
A unique feature of this census is that it is searchable from the time of release. In previous releases family historians had to wait for the censuses to be indexed before being searchable by name. The 1950 census was indexed in advance using machine learning artificial intelligence.
What does that mean for family historians? The 1950 census is leaps ahead of previous census releases but it still a bit challenging to use.
Where to Find the Census
The census is available from the National Archives at https://1950census.archives.gov/search/
While the census page will encourage you to search for both first and last name of your family I would suggest sticking to just last name. One problem area of the current search is that first names and middle initials are being mushed together. So if you search for a name like Peters you will get results that include Petera which was created by the search returning [Smith], Peter A. When you search for both first and last name it gives you two names to further misinterpret.
Best Practices for Searching
For finding your Massachusetts family start by choosing Massachusetts and then the County. In the name field put the last name. Your search criteria will appear in the box at the top left. In the image below you can see I searched for the name Parker in Worcester County, Massachusetts.
To clear the search press either Clear Search or the X next to the word whose criteria you want to remove.
Viewing the Search Results
After searching an image will appear on the right side of the screen which will mistakenly give you the impression that they have found your family. Definitely check to see if it is the right family or not.
More likely than not you will have to keep looking. Scrolling down further will show you more results. It is clearly noted that these names were extracted by Machine Learning (AI). The results show the number line where you can find your matching name result. Click on the blue Population Schedules button to see the image for each result.
As you continue scrolling you’ll start to see less closely related results such as Barker, Panker or Palker. It’s important to keep in mind the machine learning is reading handwriting not typeset. So the likelihood of your surname appearing correctly depends most on how readable the handwriting of the enumerator is.
Searching in Cities
The search function at this website has separated out major cities from the counties including Boston, Brockton, Cambridge, Fall River, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, Medford, New Bedford, Newton, Quincy, Somerville, Springfield, and Worcester. Look alphabetically for the city name not the county name. If you search for the county rather than the city you won’t find your family in the search results.
Searching by Enumeration District
If you’re having difficulty finding your family in a city try searching by enumeration district. You will need to know what street your family lived on for this to be effective. If you have their street address, head over to SteveMorse.org/census/unified.html. This is the Unified Census ED Finder page. Make sure the year is set to 1950 at the top.
Next down below change the state to Massachusetts. Then choose the county followed by the city or town. I’ll use the City of Worcester in Worcester County for this example. Now this next part is the really important part. Enter the house number (if you know it) and the Street. The street field provides a drop down of all the street names in the city.
The Unified Census ED Finder tells me that Paine Street, Worcester can be found in enumeration districts 30-20, 30-21, 30-74, and 30-75.
Jot down those numbers and head back to the 1950 Census Search page. In the search box I’ll put 30-20 and the district appears to the right. By clicking on the blue Population Schedules button we now have access to all the page images in this district.
There are 30 pages in this enumeration district. Paine Street should be included but not necessarily the exact address I want. If I don’t find it there are still three other district possibilities I can look at that we jotted down. It’s pretty quick to flip through the pages.
I found Paine Street starting at page 21 but this district didn’t contain the address I was looking for. Further searching lead me to 67 Paine Street, Worcester in enumeration district 30-74 on sheet number 12 (image 13 of 26 displayed in the district).
Try it for Yourself
Try searching the new 1950 U.S. Federal Census by location using a name search. You may have to look at a lot of images to find your family but it’s a good start. If you have trouble, use the enumeration district technique. It’s not just for cities. You can use enumeration districts for towns as well.
Good luck finding your family and I wish you an enumerator with good handwriting!
The URL for this post is: https://www.exploremassachusettsgenealogy.com/finding-your-massachusetts-family-in-the-1950-census/
How to cite this article:
Explore Massachusetts Genealogy, “Finding Your Massachusetts Family in the 1950 Census,” (https://www.exploremassachusettsgenealogy.com/finding-your-massachusetts-family-in-the-1950-census/ : posted 3 April 2022).
