A 1950 US Census Has Just Been Revived To Trace Your Family Roots For Free

Remember the family tree you attempted to construct in fifth grade? It’s now time to add to your clan’s historic genealogy. 

Nearly seven million digital records from the 1950 US census—the last time census takers visited homes door to door—have gone public, which can be accessed for free at its official site. 

The archive comprises over six million population schedules, many with multiple family members and households listed, including over 30,000 Indian Reservation schedules for Native Americans who lived on reservations at the time. 

According to CNN, information from 1950 is the latest batch that can be accessed by the public, due to a statutory law placing a 72-year restriction before the census can be revealed nationwide. 

David S Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, said that the National Archives took over a decade to prepare for the release of this census.

Each image had originally come from microfilms taken back in 1952 that staff had to carefully scan and upload onto the site after the originals were destroyed in the 1960s.

“I personally can’t wait to look up my own family in Beverly, Massachusetts,” Ferriero remarked. 

To look up your ancestors, search for the first and last name of the head of household at the time. And don’t worry if you’re not entirely sure about the spelling—the database has been programmed to return close matches even if it’s not an exact match. 

Interestingly, the information in the archive was extracted from the images of handwritten text by the ‘Optical Character Recognition’ artificial intelligence system, which could mean spellings of names may be off by a few letters if the writing wasn’t clear.  

The 1950 census had 20 questions for all respondents aged 14 years and older, though some families were asked six additional questions. 

These questions could reveal a person’s country of birth, jobs, the number of hours they worked, and other intricacies of their family and home, while the forms for Native Americans included questions on their tribal affiliations and special ceremonies, as per Quartz.

“Since 1790, census data have painted a vivid, vibrant portrait of America,” said Robert Santos, Director of the US Census Bureau. 

[via CNN and Quartz, cover image via Melissa King | Dreamstime.com]