On April 1, the 1950 Federal census was made available online, a long-awaited census for those of us who are actively involved in family history. While the census will not be indexed for a few months, one can find a family IF a specific address in a large town or city is known, OR if the ancestors lived in a small town or farming community. I feel very lucky today to have so many farming ancestors that make my initial look at this census easy.
The census itself does not hold as many questions as previous ones did. For example, citizens were asked about religion, how many births and how many children still living, where the parents were born, if the family had a radio, if anyone had military service, and so much more. But starting in the 1950 census, just the basic information was asked.
Still, I'm thrilled to see parts of my family. And today, I'd like to share a few with you:
First up, my own parents who married in 1946 along with their first born, my older brother Myron. Those of you who know me know that I was born in 1950, so why aren't I there? It's because the census was taken in April and I was born in June of 1950. I'm sort of there, aren't I? But I'll have to hang around until 1960 to see my name in the census.
In the Dayton, Webster County, Iowa census:
You can enlarge this on your computer, but it shows Rolland Linn, age 25, born in Iowa, a farmer who worked 40 hours a week; LaVonne, age 24, No work (Ha!!!); and Myron, age 1.
Next is the census in Des Moines showing my grandparents, Peter and Maude Linn, living at 1615 Arlington Avenue, with their 3 youngest sons: Ellis, Ivan, and Merlyn. And while we all knew they had lodgers, I never knew they had NINE lodgers in 1950. Hard work to feed and clean up for everyone.
In the Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa 1950 census:
You can see Peter Linn, age 58, born in Iowa; his wife Maude, age 53, housework; Ellis, age 22, an internal revenue tax collector (I'm sure he was very popular with that job title!); Ivan, age 18, and Merlyn, age 13. I remember Lou Lightner, but I can't believe he was 73 in 1950 when he was still living at this address in 1956-7 when I remember meeting him. In my young mind, I thought he was old, but usually OLD at my age would be something like 40!!!
So, if you are interested in looking up your family in the 1950 census and they lived in a small community or farm, you can do it.
https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1950
Click on the "Search the 1950 census" on the right. Fill in what you know. State, county or city, and last name. You might have to scroll through 20-50 pages if your last name is very common. One way to narrow it down is to know the ED (Enumeration District).
https://1950census.archives.gov/howto/ed-maps.html
I just clicked on the one in the paragraph that is for Ohio and substituted Iowa and Webster and scrolled down to Dayton to open it up.
It may take a few months to index these to make it easier for everyone to find. If you want me to look up your family now, just give me the state, county, town, and names. If I can, I'll find your family and send you a copy.
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