The 1950 Census has been available now for 21 days. After the excitement of finding ancestors on the NARA site, the focus has now been on indexing and reviewing names. It's amazing how fast this is all going. Thanks to the new software being used by NARA and Ancestry, names are being indexed faster than previous census records. And especially thanks to all the volunteers who are reviewing all the data over on FamilySearch.org. They have been working around the clock to complete this project. You can help too!
How Do You Do It?
I've dabbled a little bit in helping review names on FamilySearch.org, but yesterday I jumped right in and went crazy reviewing names. You see, Missouri became available yesterday! Yay!! While I have found pretty much everyone on my list, there were some I hadn't found yet. So I dove right in.
As you can see they are coming along fairly nicely. You can choose which state you want to work on either from the drop-down menu or the map. After that, you a box comes up giving you a couple of options. As of right now, the only choice available for Missouri is "Review Names" at the bottom. Once the indexing process gets a little further, other options will be made available. See the images below. Utah is further along in the indexing process so they have more options available.
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| 1950 Census Community Project Review the Census in Missouri FamilySearch.og |
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| 1950 Census Community Project Review the Census in Utah FamilySearch.org |
Since the only option available is "Review Names" that's what I clicked on. And it brought up another box that gives you the options of either searching for specific surnames or just diving into the state. I did both. First I started with the surnames in my family. I wanted to review my family names and I wanted to see if any missing family members popped up.
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| 1950 Census Community Project Review Individual Names FamilySearch.org |
When I searched for the surnames in my family, many pages were brought up that were NOT my family, but that's ok. I was happy to review the similar names and help other families. I was pretty impressed it picked up hard to recognize surnames like "ILG". If not written correctly, it could resemble other words.
Searching the surname "ILG" brought up my great-grandparents Joseph and Margaret Ilg in St. Louis, Missouri. I had already located their census page on the NARA site with the help of the SteveMorse.org site. But I was so happy to be able to review the name and identify that it was correct.
I was able to continue to review the page they were on if I wanted. A continued search of the surname "ILG" brought up other people with that same last night, but no other families like I thought it would. That either means one of two things: 1) The surname wasn't recognized as being "ILG" or 2) The other "ILG" families were already reviewed. Which works for me. We are all working together to help each other and get this project done faster. You can see below what it looks like to review names.
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| 1950 Census Community Project Reviewing Names FamilySearch.org |
Right now, they are only reviewing first names and surnames on the census for Missouri. If it matches, you click match. If it's incorrect, you can edit it. If you are unsure (and that's ok) then click unsure. Better to be honest than to be incorrect. There are other options to choose from such as if there are other words besides names or if something has been scratched out or other anomalies. I have not worked with the other options available to other states yet such as reviewing groups, but when I do, I will write another blog post.
There are still some bugs to be worked out in the system so be patient. If you have any questions or want to know about updates to the project, click the link below.
As of this date, Missouri is at 2% for reviewing names. But I know that won't last for long. I will be contributing more as will so many other volunteers. Maybe I will come across some more surprises. Check out a couple I have already found.
Surprises
As I said above, there are still some family members I have not found yet for various reasons. So I'm waiting for the indexing process to be complete. While waiting, I searched for their surnames for reviewing. I came up with a couple of surprises but not the ones I was expecting.
First, I searched for the "Rickards" surname to see what would come up. I did bring up my father-in-law and his parents, which I had already found. So I verified their names while I was there. But there was one person missing from that census, which I knew would be. My father-in-law's brother, Keith Rickards. Due to some complications during birth, he was born with severe mental disabilities. He was at home for a few years, as shown in the 1940 Census and in some photographs I have from my father-in-law. But he was not with them on the 1950 Census. As I said, I already knew he wouldn't be.
I was informed years ago that Keith had spent most of his life in a special facility for his mental disabilities. He thrived well as far as I understood. Lilly, his mom, worked at the facility in the gift shop. According to a newspaper article, Keithie (as his mom would call him) lived at Bellefontaine Rehabilitation Center. I wrote about him for the 52 Ancestors prompt: Bachelor Uncle.
Even though I knew the name of the Facility, there was no way for me to track it down in the 1950 Census. And I learned why while I was reviewing names. While searching for "Rickards" surnames, a page popped up with a whole bunch of unrelated names in alphabetical order. And there he was, right on that page. I scrolled to the top and noticed the name of the facility was not the same as what I had. It's possible they changed the name sometime in the years he had lived there.
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| 1950 Census Community Project Reviewing Names FamilySearch.org |
The name of the facility was St. Louis State Training School in St. Ferdinand, St. Louis, Missouri. Oh, I feel some more research is going to happen soon and another blog post going more in-depth. That is if I find more information. So I was excited to find this surprise. But this wasn't the only one.
While still reviewing "Rickards" surnames, I came across a name I recognized: Len Rickards. I know that name because he contacted me a few years ago. We are distant cousins on my husband's side. I didn't realize he would appear on this census! So I downloaded a copy of the census and emailed it to him. Can't wait to hear back from him.
Going from my hubby's family to my family, I searched for the surname "Strawhun" to see what would come up. My Grandma Fuchs' brother and his family popped up! Wilbert Strawhun was a fireman in Rock Hill, Missouri for years and I hadn't located him yet on the 1950 census. So that was a fun surprise. I continued searching but no other Strawhuns showed up.
I know as the days go on, I will find more surprises popping up as names get indexed. What surprises have you found? Are you helping index? Who are you hoping to find once the index is complete?
Very poignant for you to find "Keithie" in this Census! Enjoyed your post.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
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