The April 1 release of the 1950 United States census has kept some of us up late—or rising early—to locate family and people of interest. Here’s an update, especially for New York.
The National Archives (NARA) released the census images with an artificial intelligence generated index, allowing many to find people in the first few days of release. Here is the site, 1950census.archives.gov. Expectations were not high for the index, and only names, States, counties and enumeration districts were indexed.
Since April 1, three major genealogy sites added the images to their sites and are creating their own indexes for the census, improving on the NARA’s initial index. FamilySearch and Ancestry are working cooperatively on indexing, and MyHeritage is rapidly indexing as well, with an estimated completion of June 2022.
FamilySearch opened New York for indexing!
This is exciting news for those researching New York families. To assist with indexing, log in to FamilySearch, and click on the “Get Involved” menu for the 1950 Census, familysearch.org/getinvolved/1950. By selecting New York, you’ll have options to review names, families, or the page headers.
The more we all help index, the sooner indexed states, including New York, will be released. If a page other than New York comes up, someone on the page was born in New York—it’s a known issue being worked on.
How to Access the 1950 Census
Free access to the census is provided by NARA at 1950census.archives.gov. The census includes enumerations for 48 U.S. states and several territories.
All the sites, including Ancestry allow researchers to browse by state, county, and enumeration districts.
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FamilySearch (helpful map interface to browse records)
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Ancestry.com (use the Browse the collection feature)
Join us for our webinar on Wednesday, April 27, register for the link.