We are just days away from the release of the 1950 Census. I am working on finishing up some notes preparing for the moment it releases at Midnight on April 1st. I've been working on this since last year; looking up addresses, ED maps, and writing notes. I wrote a blog post about my process last year called How To Find Addresses Before Hand.Have you found all the addresses you need? How do you keep track of them? Thomas MacEntee of Genealogy Bargains released the Excel Sheet that he is using to keep track of his 1950 Census Research. You can download it here from his website.
I created my own Spreadsheet (In Open Office) a while back. I've tried using other spreadsheets that people have created in the past, but they don't always work for me. So I usually make one from scratch, changing it as I go to accommodate the things I want it to include. This spreadsheet has been edited a few times as I went on. But I think I've got everything I need. Although after the census is released, I may add a column or two.
Screenshot of 1950 Census Spreadsheet
This is just a small snippet of what is on my spreadsheet but listed below are all the columns I have included. The main person listed will be the ancestor that should be the Head of the House (HOH). I created a separate column for who else should be living in that household. It's divided up into two sections. The first section is preliminary research of addresses, sources, notes, EDs, links to maps, etc. The second section is for after the Census is released. Information in this section includes the repository where I got the Census, Image number, Link to image, etc.
First Section
HOH Last Name
HOH First Name
HOH Middle Name
Street Address
City/Township
County
State
Enumeration District
Other family included (who else should be listed at this address)
Sources Consulted for address
Links to ED Maps on NARA site
Notes
Second Section
Repository
Image #
Sheet #
Line #
Link
Other Family included
Sample Entry
This is my 2nd Great Grandparents, Robert & Louise Strawhun. They passed away in the late 70s and family doesn't live at this address anymore, so there are no privacy concerns. The word "Map" is highlighted because it is a clickable link. It will take you directly to the map on the NARA website. I have downloaded the map as well, but I wanted the link documented as well. This should be everything I need to find the 1950 Census. The second section will be filled out after I find the Census.
I know that there will be a lot of information included in the Census, but I'm not including that in this log. The point of this log is to find the census. Another spreadsheet can be used to transcribe the information on the census itself.
What are you doing to prepare? Are you using Thomas MacEntee's spreadsheet? Did you make your own? How many people are you hoping to find?
While checking out Ancestry, I stumbled across a new feature I had no idea existed. Have you seen it? It's the "Explore Maps" section for the 1950 Census. What is this you ask? Well apparently you can explore Enumeration District Maps right on Ancestry.com. You can search for an address and it takes you right to that Enumeration District map. Game Changer!
Explore Maps Ancestry.com
So after I clicked on the "Explore Maps" button, it took me to a page with prompts to explain how to use this feature.
Welcome to 1950 Census District Finder Ancestry.com
After clicking through, I learned that you can search by an address and it is supposed to find the Enumeration District for you AND bring up the map. Intriguing. And will it work for streets that I can not find on the Enumeration District? Oh we are going to put this to the test right now.
Start Exploring Ancestry.com
After I clicked, "Explore district maps", it took me through a series of prompts explaining how to use the page and what all the buttons are for. I will let you go through those yourself when you visit this page. I decided to dive right in and see how well this was going to work. First, I started with an easy address. Easy meaning I had no trouble finding this Enumeration District when I was looking originally. I started with my Great-Grandma's address of 102 N. Clay, Kirkwood, Missouri.
Search Option Enter address to search for district map Ancestry.com
As you can see, when you start typing an address, it brings up options for you to chose from. Very handy. The address I needed was the first option. So I selected that and clicked "Search". Here is what it brought up.
Search Results 102 N Clay, Kirkwood, Missouri ED 95-75 Ancestry.com
Oh my gosh! Look at that! Now, you can zoom in much closer than this to get a view of the map. But yes, this is correct! Very impressive! But what about streets that didn't exist on the map or were labeled? If you read my last blog post, you will see I had some difficulty tracking down a couple of Enumeration District maps because the streets were not on the maps. Read it here: 1950 Census - What if you can't find a street?
So I decided to put it to the test. I chose the address 9223 Coral, St. Louis, Missouri. This street was NOT on the Enumeration District Map because they used a map from 1942. That street did not exist in 1942, but it did in 1950. I know because my Great-Grandparents lived there. Confirmed by Family and City Directories. So it took some time to find the correct map, but with the help of Google Maps, I found it. So what is this going to bring up if I search it? Hmm...
Search Results 9223 Coral, St. Louis, Missouri ED 95-315 Ancestry.com
Holy Cow! The search engine actually found it! Do you see what I mean? The street isn't even on the map. I can't believe it. So just like what I did, they used other maps to find where the street was and in turn found the correct Enumeration District. Well, I'll be. There are other features that include changing the opacity to view today's map underneath. That's how they were able to determine where the street is.
Opacity Option Ancestry.com
If you look to the right of the image, you can see the Opacity Option. You can slide the circle back and forth to change the opacity of the Enumeration District map, so you can see what it looks like today. I haven't played around with all the features yet, but this is cool!
As you can see, this is still in Beta testing mode, so not everyone will have access to this yet. Plus, I believe you will also need an Ancestry subscription to be able to use this feature. I have not tried playing with everything yet as I literally just found this. I wonder how well it works with streets that have changed names as I haven't come across that in my research. But what about Rural Route Numbers? Hmmm...
I have a 2nd Great Aunt & her 2nd husband that moved around a lot during this time. 2nd Great Uncle Howard Kelley was an architect and he traveled to different parts of the United States for work. Mom said they even lived in the territory of Alaska at one point. She remembers him sending her an Eskimo doll when she was little. Well, one address I have for them is where they settled in Carmel, Indiana. The official address is RR1 Box 60, Carmel, Indiana. That is a tricky address to find on the Enumeration District map. So let's try this.
Search Option Enter address to search for district map Ancestry.com
Holy cow! It actually has this address as an option in the drop-down menu! Are you kidding me? I did NOT expect this. Ok, I selected it. What will it bring up?
Search Results RR1 Box 60, Carmel, Hamilton, Indiana ED 29-11
I can't even believe it. This was an address I could not find on the Enumeration District Map. I had three options depending on where they lived, but this narrowed it down for me. I am just blown away. Lisa Louis Cook had a great video instructing us how to find locations if you only had a Rural Route Number for an address. Watch her video here:
I think it's safe to say, I am blown away by this new feature on Ancestry. While I've already found most of the Enumeration District Maps for my ancestors, this is still really cool and can be very helpful to others.
Downfalls Ok, one big downfall for this is it appears you have to have an ancestry.com membership to use this feature. I have not confirmed that yet because 1) it's in beta test so not everyone will have access 2)I have a membership account so it obviously showed up for me. Now, I did check a secondary account I have, but again since it's in beta test, it didn't show up for that account. So I am unsure if this will be rolled out to be available to everyone when the 1950 census becomes available or not.
Another downfall is this is being released just days before the 1950 census is released, so almost everyone has done their research and found the ED maps they need. At least I assume so, because I know I have.
A third downfall is a lot of people are waiting for the Preliminary Index to be released before they do anything, so they won't even mess with this. I could be wrong, but that's just my thinking.
And the last, but big, downfall is that Ancestry is not as up-to-date as the SteveMorse.org One-Step website. Joel Weintraub, one of the developers of the site, put the Ancestry search through an extensive test and found some issues. One big one is an ED was divided up after the fact, Ancestry doesn't have those updates, BUT the SteveMorse.org website DOES have the updates in their search.
Otherwise, I have to say, I am very impressed with this new feature. As I showed you above, it helped me narrow down a location for my 2nd Great Aunt & Uncle in a Rural area. And it also can help if a street was not available on the Enumeration District Map at the time. But I will still be cross-checking the findings with the SteveMorse.org site.
Side Note I am still impressed with how easy it is to navigate the SteveMorse.org website and all the work that has gone into their site to help us as researchers. There are so many search features and helpful tips that have been made available to us that it can not compare with anything else. Plus, IT'S ALL FREE!! Don't forget that. So while this new feature by Ancestry is definitely helpful, I will still be using the SteveMorse.org Website for much of my research because of the accuracy of their resources.
If you have an Ancestry.com membership, head over and see if you can use this new feature they are beta testing, and let me know what you think. Who are you hoping to find? Did this help you locate a map that previously could not locate?
During this whole process of preparing for the 1950 census, the SteveMorse.org site has been extremely helpful. I have located so many maps and Enumeration Districts for my family through their One-Step site. And their transcriptions of the Enumeration District descriptions have really narrowed down which Enumeration District I needed for my families. But what happens if the street you are looking for doesn't show up during the search? That happened to me recently when I was trying to look up an address for some family in Texas. I knew the address was correct because I talked with the family member who lived there in 1950. But no matter what I did, I couldn't find the right map. Eventually, I did locate the right map and Enumeration District, but it took some extra steps that I wanted to share with you. Here are two ways that I was able to find the Enumeration Districts when the streets didn't come up.
1. Use nearby streets
The Census Bureau would use whatever maps they could get their hands on, so the map used might be older than 1950. And the street may not be on that older map. That happened with a different address I was looking up. I knew the street existed in 1950 as I had a 1950 city directory. But it wouldn't show up in the search. So I searched nearby streets and found the correct ED Map.
I used Google Maps to help me find the location of Coral Drive first. I looked at the surrounding streets and chose a couple to search by on the SteveMorse.org site. That brought up the map I needed. Then I went back and forth between Google Maps and the ED map to find the location of where the street should be. The ED map was put together in 1942, so that's why the street did not show up. It hadn't been developed yet. See the map images below.
1950 (1942) Enumeration District Map Affton, Missouri Coral Drive is supposed to be in the circle
Google Maps Affton, Missouri Coral Drive is in the circle
Thanks to the surrounding streets like Weber and Fayette, I was able to find the area where Coral Drive should have been.
2. Use Google Maps to find specific areas
I already touched on using Google Maps in the previous tip, but this is a different way Google Maps can be helpful. What happens when you can't bring up ANY nearby streets? That's what I ran into with this next example.
I am not familiar with this area like I was for the last address. I searched for the street, Darcus, on SteveMorse.org but nothing came up. I saw a Dorcus and thought it was maybe a misspelling, but, nope, that didn't come up on Google Maps. I tried to search the nearby streets and still couldn't come up with anything.
Finally, a search of the area of Houston, Harris County, Texas brought up the following Map in a collection. But as you can see, there was a big blank section of the map.
As you can see on the map, there are different areas mentioned in the blank area. I compared this with Google Maps. I found Bellaire, West University Place, and Southside Place. The Point is where Darcus Street is located.
Google Maps Houston, Harris County, Texas
I went back to the SteveMorse.org site, and for the city dropdown menu, I selected West University Place since that was on the map and it's near Darcus. This is the map that came up.
While I thought this was going to help me find the Enumeration District but I was wrong. After comparing this to Google Maps, the street, Darcus, appears to be right in the area of South Side, which has no ED listed, nor does it have the street name listed.
Google Maps Southside Place, Houston, Harris County, Texas Darcus Street is the point
Well, this explains why the street didn't show up when I searched for it. But is there a map that has an ED listed? Back to the SteveMorse.org site. For the city dropdown menu, there was another option to try: Houston Vacinity. I checked through that collection of maps and came across the following map.
The circled area is Southside Place. Once again, it does not have the streets listed in that area. But thanks to Google Maps I was able to find the surrounding areas and narrow them down. I wouldn't have known they were divided up by different "towns" or "areas". So make sure you use Google Maps to help you learn more about the area to find the correct map.
These are just two ways that I was able to find Enumeration Districts when the streets couldn't be found on the SteveMorse.org site. The site was still extremely helpful to narrow down the choices to find the right map. Have you had trouble finding Enumeration Districts because the streets weren't listed? What did you do?
Happy St. Patrick's Day! As my mom says, "The day where everyone is Irish." Well, thanks to DNA testing and research, I have learned I am actually part Irish on my Dad's side! I wrote about Harry Hill, my Irish Ancestor last year. Check out that post and come back here to see what we have in store for this St. Patrick's Day.
I love watching this Channel on YouTube where Irish people try all kinds of things from all over the world. It's called The Try Channel. That gave me the idea of trying traditional Irish Foods to celebrate my Irish heritage. So that's what I did. I reached out to some friends on the internet for some ideas. Here is what I came up with.
Mark & me trying Irish foods
Watch me try all these Irish foods!
Boxty
“Boxty in the griddle, boxty in the pan, if you can’t make boxty, you’ll never get a man”.
Boxty is a traditional Irish Potato Pancake with grated potatoes and mashed potatoes. It is commonly made with about 70% potato and about 30% other ingredients. The most popular version of the dish consists of finely grated raw potato and flour. The grated potato may be strained to remove most of the starch and water but this is not necessary. The mixture is fried on a griddle pan for a few minutes on each side, similar to a normal pancake. The most noticeable difference between boxty and other fried potato dishes is its smooth, fine-grained consistency.
The dish is mostly associated with the north midlands, north Connacht and southern Ulster, in particular the counties of Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo, Donegal, Fermanagh, Longford, and Cavan. (Irish: bacstaÃ)
The recipe I used I found on Pinterest. There are other recipes that might have just a slight variation, but this one turned out so well, I'm going to stick with it.
This recipe made quite a lot of potato pancakes. I had enough leftovers for my husband, daughter, and my mom. I served mine with sliced green onions and a couple of sausage links. Other sites state you can serve them with syrup or sour cream, depending on your taste. 10 out of 10 would make this again.
Irish Coffee
This was something my husband has been wanting to try for a long time. He loves coffee and he loves whisky. So I looked up many recipes for Irish Coffee. I was surprised at all the variations. I finally landed on a simple recipe that was perfect. Click the link to read about the History of Irish Coffee.
Irish Coffee 4oz Coffee 1-2 TBS sugar (hubby doesn't like it too sweet) 1 shot of Irish Whiskey (I used Jameson Black Barrel) Homemade Whipped Cream
Pour hot water into the glass you are going to serve your Irish Coffee in so it will warm up. Make your coffee. Put the sugar in a small pot, add just a bit of water, and heat it until it melts. Remove from heat and pour in the whiskey to warm it with the sugar. Pour out the water from your cup. Add the coffee, then add your sugar/whiskey mixture and then top with homemade whipping cream. (Just whip heavy whipping cream until solid)
There you go! Like I said, there are many variations. So make it however you want. This is just the way I make it and hubby loves it! I don't have a traditional clear glass to serve it in, so I used what I had. I served my coffee with Irish Soda Bread. I did not make that. I purchased it from the store. It was one less thing for me to make.
I had thought about making this from scratch, but with everything else I was doing, I decided to just pick it up from the store. I served it with my Irish Coffee and some Kerrygold Irish Butter.
"Despite its hefty presence during Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations, the history of Irish Soda Bread doesn’t nearly date back to the days of Saint Patty himself—roughly 400 AD—but rather only a couple of centuries. Irish Soda Bread was first created in the late 1830s when the first iteration of baking soda—or bicarbonate soda—was introduced to the U.K." Source: History of Irish Soda Bread
I wasn't planning on making this at first, but since I wanted to try a Guinness for the first time (and you can only buy the cans in a four-pack) I decided to try this recipe. It called for a full can of Guinness. Wow! It takes all day to cook to get the flavors melded together. The house smelled delicious. I got the recipe from here: Irish Beef and Guinness Stew. She explains it so well, so I'm not going to type it all out below. follow her instructions and it will turn out amazing.
I served this with Colcannon Potatoes since they recommend Mashed Potatoes.
Colcannon
Colcannon is an Irish Mashed potato recipe that contains kale or cabbage and bacon. I absolutely LOVED this. It paired well with the Irish Beef Stew, but I would serve this by itself some time.
During the 1600 and 1700’s in Europe and Ireland, potatoes, cabbages, and leeks were considered the food of the common man so it was inevitable that a dish would evolve that combines all the ingredients. The word colcannon is from the Gaelic term “cal ceannann” which means white-headed cabbage. It is also believed to be a derivative of the old Irish “cainnenin” translated as garlic, onion, or leek.
In Ireland, colcannon is served as a special treat with ham or Irish bacon. The Irish tradition is to serve colcannon as the main dish for Halloween festivities and refer to the evening as “Colcannon Night”. Colcannon is used for the foretelling of marriages. Just as Americans have the fun superstition of the single young lady who catches the wedding bouquet will be the next to marry. Young single Irish women hope to find the ring hidden in their plate of colcannon. Source: What's Cooking America
All in all, it was a good day trying traditional Irish foods. I did end the day trying my first Guinness, and I have to say... eh... well watch the video to get my take on it. What a great way to celebrate my Irish heritage. I am going to try some other items soon that were recommended to me. Such as a Tayto Crisp sandwich. I ordered the chips from Amazon.
Have you tried any of these recipes? What do you like to make for St. Patrick's Day? do you have Irish heritage? Let me know in the comments below. And don't forget to check out my video!
We are officially less than a month away from the release of the 1950 census. Are you ready? Have you found the addresses of the ancestors you hope to find? Have you looked them up at the Steve Morse website? Are you still struggling to find an address? In my previous posts, I've discussed some ways to find addresses for your ancestors. Read the following blog posts:
Going back to the post, Who Do You Hope To Find, I was looking at photos from around that time to get an idea of where my family might have been in 1950. Some photos contain dates, like the photos I shared. But there is something else you find in photos.
After reviewing some other photos, I came across one that had a specific detail that can be very helpful. The photo below is of my Uncle Les sitting on the front porch with their dogs. It was mixed with a collection of random photos. But there is one detail that caught my attention. Do you know what it is?
Uncle Les sitting on porch abt. 1949 St. Louis, Missouri
Do you see the number on the door in the background? "7258". That's the address of the house. I have many photos of this house that I was able to group together because of the number on the front and the style of the house. Have you ever thought of looking at some photos from around that time to see if there was an address in the background? I do have quite a few photos of my family members standing in front of their houses, so I assume many of you will probably have that in your collection as well. Check the photos closely to see if there is a number on the house in the background. If you are bouncing back and forth between two addresses that your ancestors could have lived at, this might narrow it down.
Right around the 1950 Census, there were a lot of changes happening to my mom's family. First, my mom was born in March. Second, my mom told me they moved from their house in St. Louis to their home in House Springs sometime in 1950. So there are two possibilities of where they could be living. So more sources were needed to help me narrow down the timeframe. As I mentioned in my blog, Who Do You Hope To Find, I had my mom's birth certificate which lists the address of her parents when she was born in 1950. That address is in St. Louis. Again, mom was born in March, but the Census was in April. So it's still possible they moved in April. Well, these pictures are also a helpful clue. I know this is my Uncle on the front porch based on his birthday. The weather looks warm cause he is wearing shorts. These are clues that could help you determine the dates of the photos.
So my suggestion is if you haven't been able to narrow down some locations for your ancestors, check out your photo collection. Then talk to some family. Once I started showing my mom some photos, she just blurted out that she was told they moved to House Springs when she was about six months old. Well, there you go. Based on that information, more than likely the family will still be in St. Louis at the time of the 1950 census.
I just got an exciting email! I had entered a contest recently but had forgotten about it as I am dealing with some health issues. Well, today I just checked my email and got this notice:
I won a MyHeritage DNA Test Kit! I was blown away! I usually don't win contests. And I have to say I'm excited about this. I had been wanting to do a DNA test kit to help me try to track down some lines and break through some brick walls. I was just talking with my hubby about it the other day.
So I have to thank Reunions Magazine for this wonderful surprise. Have you heard of them? They are your one-stop shop for Reunion Planning. You can share your upcoming reunion, find a ton of resources to help you plan your reunion, and even share your photos from your reunion. I definitely recommend you check them out.
So now, I wait for it to arrive. I will share the process the whole way through on here and on my YouTube Channel, so make sure you follow my blog and subscribe to my channel.
What am I hoping to find?
There are two main walls I want to try to break down. First, ever since I found out my 2nd Great-Grandma was adopted, I've wanted to try to find her family. Here are some links to different posts where I mention this
Second, I am hoping to find the link back to Ireland. I know who my Irish Ancestor is, but I can't trace him into Ireland. So I hope I find some common ancestors in Ireland. I know I won't find out anything by St. Patrick's Day this year, but maybe by next year, I will have some amazing news!
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