Check weird spellings. Found my mom’s family but not spelled correctly.
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You can search by name now (much easier than the 1940 census was).
I knew where my father’s family lived, as they lived there for many years. My mom was living with her brother at the time so I did not know the exact location. Plus fun to see what jobs folks had at that point in time. My mom’s parents died before I was born.
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I spent some time poking around in the records on Saturday. I knew my father’s family dynamics were challenging, but I was still surprised to find my dad and uncle, ages 7 and 8, listed as “wards” of a woman whose name I didn’t know. There was also a note that the children were registered with Catholic Children’s Services but living at the listed address. I didn’t find the other three siblings or their parents in my first foray. My father passed away in 2019, and he was pretty much estranged from his family on the other side of the country, so I don’t know much of the history. More research awaits.
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I found an uncle whose name was spelled incorrectly; I submitted a translation to correct it. I still can’t find anyone else from that family or anyone at all from my dad’s family. Apparently, machine learning for transcription isn’t so hot for difficult to spell Polish names. I will have to get even more creative with my guesses for misspellings.
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I just realized that when the 1960 census is released I’ll be on it! It will be at the same address as my father is at in the 1950 census, so if one were to only look at those 2 it would seem he never moved. In fact, between 1950 and 1960 he graduated from hs, college, got married, had 3 kids and moved back to the apartment in his parents’ home with the whole new family. The address on my birth certificate (child #3) is the same as that on his (and maybe my grandmother born in 1902, I’ll have to check) but my two older siblings have different addresses on theirs.
Painting the whole picture still takes some work.
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Sounds familiar, except I’m the youngest and I recall far more about our family history and relatives than my siblings do.
Well, I found this frustrating. I know where my parents were living and my grandparents but apparently they were not home. It also looks like many people in the town were “not home”. One family (no name) had “on vacation in Florida” listed. Addresses were scrawled all over the place. Oh well, the census I am waiting for is the Canadian 1930 one that will be released in 2023
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Oops, spoke too soon. In 1950, my parents were living with my grandparents. It must have been quite a houseful because on the other side of the house, my aunt, her husband and their one year old son were living. I can’t imagine it.
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If you’re looking at an enumeration district and find “not home” then you may need to check all the other pages too. I noticed in the census record for my current house (I was curious who lived there in 1950) that the census taker apparently made more than one pass thru the district. So someone at a given address might be listed as “not home” and then have an entry a few pages later when I guess the census taker managed to track them down.
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@Silpat, my sibs were 3, 5 & 7 at the time – I get that they don’t remember much! 
I’m the resident historian and photographer, too, so it has been my bailiwick since I was about ten. OTOH, my sibs know about everything that happened from 1980-onward, because I left for college when my youngest sibs (twins) were 12! Have heard some pretty wild tales of things that never would have been allowed when I was growing up.
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By law, individually identifiable data remains private for 72 years. Anyone age 72 years (as of 4/1) or older who is alive will be able to find themselves.
This is really interesting. I wish I’d taken anthropology.
^ or demography.
But do you remember who else was living with your family 72 years ago
My dad (single) was living with his older brother, brother’s wife, their two year old and another person listed as a boarder. Both brothers were post WW II service and their parents were already dead. I’m going to ask my cousin if she knew/remembers that my dad and a boarder lived with them.
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When the 1990 census s made public, the dragon family won’t be findable. We moved to a new state and never received the forms.
I haven’t found my parents on the 1950 form yet, I need to use something bigger than my phone and actually read some instructions. Has anyone found a parent living on a military base?
Yes, I found my parents and older siblings living on a military base. I just entered my dad’s name and the state, and got it on the first hit.
My family has a small private FB page devoted to the descendants of my paternal grandparents -there are about 15 of us sharing old photos, recipes, etc. For fun I posted a screenshot of the 1950 Census page that just seemed to show up on Ancestry.com this week. One cousin noted that a family member was missing and then I got an email from my 82 year old uncle telling me to remove the page “ because some things belong in the family.”
I had just assumed there was a mistaken omission, but apparently not.
Ancestry is gradually indexing the 1950 census I fo, state by state. That may be why it suddenly popped up.
Cheddarcheese, sounds like there’s a story there!
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I’d follow up with 82-year-old uncle to find out what that story is. Once he’s gone, it may be lost forever.
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