census

Infinite Diversity (Part I)

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One of the most interesting things about records in the U.S. National Archives is almost infinite diversity of materials that can be found. This post will highlight several small record series that have been digitized.

Record Group 15, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, is well known for genealogical gems like military service and pension files, but it also contains a variety of other records:

  • Bibliography of Publications Concerning Inmates in Soldiers’ Homes, ca. 1913–ca. 1927, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/407305556.
  • Records Relating to the Delaney House, 1914, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/407302072. This was a building in Washington, DC, that was used as a hospital during the Civil War. 
  • Records Concerning Confederate Homes, 1919-1927, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/407302073, includes a list of Confederate homes existing at that time. 
  • Summary Lists of Certificate Numbers Assigned to Pensioned Veterans, Navy Widows, and Army and Navy Widows, 1816–1924,  https://catalog.archives.gov/id/400216432. This series contains typescript lists that identify the dates upon which certain pension certificate numbers were assigned to pensioned veterans (“invalids”), 1816-1924; Navy widows, 1862-1910; and to widows, 1862-1924. The “widows” list includes certificate numbers issued to Army widows for 1862-August 1910 and both Army and Navy widows for August 1910-June 1924. These lists likely served as a quick reference aid to the approximate date when a certificate was issued. For example, if one wanted to know when Widow’s Certificate (WC) 190,000 was issued, the widow’s certificate list indicates it was issued sometime between June 3, 1880, when 188,500 was issued, and June 3, 1881, when 192,500 was issued.

Record Group 64, Records of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) includes many NARA microfilm publications because they are NARA work product.

  • NARA Microfilm Publication M2156, Lists of Federal Prisoners of War Who Enlisted in the Confederate Army (1 roll, published 2012), https://catalog.archives.gov/id/470650567, was uploaded to the Catalog in RG 64 as National Archives work product but the images of records it contains are from Record Group 249, Records of the Commissary General of Prisoners.

Record Group 92, Office of the Quartermaster General

  • Annual Reports Relating to the Army Transport Service, 1901,  https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2662956. relates to quartermaster activities that supported the U.S. Army during the Philippine-American War.

Record Group 393, Records of U.S. Army Continental Commands

  • Census of Black Persons in Princess Anne County, Virginia, 1863, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/352794518, is a unique volume in NARA holdings. In this volume, H. H. Huff of Ovid, Seneca County, New York, recorded a census of black persons who resided in Princess Anne County, Virginia. Mr. Huff began taking the census on June 23, 1863, according to a paper glued to the inside front cover of the volume. The printed census form, which spans two facing pages, asked for each person’s name and the following information:
    • Sex – Male or female
    • Age – Under 10, 10 to 20, 20 to 45, or over 45
    • Condition – Bond (enslaved), free, or contraband
    • Residence – Permanent, transient, or how long within the lines
    • How Employed – On deserted farms, otherwise employed by the government, or not employed
    • Helped by the Government – Wholly or in Part
    • Color – Black or mixed Able to read [hash mark if yes]
    • Remarks – The “Remarks” column often indicates federal employment, either in general terms, such as “on entrenchment,” or specifically, such as “Ordnance Department.”
  • List of Prisoners at Fort Jefferson (Florida) on March 31, 1866,  https://catalog.archives.gov/id/404788116, includes Dr. Samuel Mudd and other persons who assisted John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of Lincoln, as well as other military prisoners.
  • Lists of Supplies on Hand, July 1847–October 1850 (at Fort Jefferson, Florida), https://catalog.archives.gov/id/404788104, could be of interest to military historians.

Record Group  395, Records of U.S. Army Overseas Operations and Commands, contains a lot of material relating to activities of both Filipino and U.S. personnel during the Philippine-American War, 1899-1902. These are just a few examples.

  • Card List of Batson’s Scouts, July 1901, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/467258916.
  • Register of a Census Taken in the Province of Tayabas, Philippines, June 1900–September 1900, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/400216440. Each entry includes the man’s name, age, marital status, bario of residence in Tayabas, occupation (“profession”), and the census certificate number and date of issuance. All the men were indicated to be natives of Luzon. No women are included.
  • Register of Native Prisoners Confined, October 1900-May 1902, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/404788077, primarily contains a list of native (Filipino) prisoners of war confined at Balayan, Batangas, Philippine Islands. The men were captured from October 1900 to July 1901 and released by May 1902. The information was recorded across two facing pages and usually includes including each man’s name, age, residence, date of capture and by which officer, cause for which held, and “disposition” that is usually the date of release from confinement.
  • Special Orders, May-September 1900, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/404788009, were issued by commanding officers of 4th U.S. Infantry from the “Headquarters, U.S. Troops” at Bacoor, Cavite, Philippines, and primarily concern special assignments of duty to specific military personnel.
  • Special Orders, May-July 1901, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/404788041, were issued from the headquarters of the 1st Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry, at Badoc, Ilocos Norte, Philippines, and primarily concern special assignments of duty to specific military personnel.

Census of Black Persons in Princess Anne County, Virginia, 1863

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The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) recently digitized an 1863 census of Black persons in Princess Anne County, Virginia, that was compiled by the Union Army. Taken seven years before the 1870 census, which is normally the earliest census upon which formerly enslaved persons were listed by name, this unique record provides a valuable early snapshot of the names, ages, employment, and other information about bond (enslaved), free, or contraband individuals and families. Read more about it at https://historyhub.history.gov/african-american-records/b/african-american-records-blog/posts/census-of-black-persons-in-princess-anne-county-virginia-1863 and view the records online at https://catalog.archives.gov/id/352794518.

Special Censuses of 15 U.S. Towns, 1932-1938

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Censuses “in-between” federal census years are always a bonus! Changes in families and neighborhoods can be more closely tracked. Missed or miss-enumerated families might be located.

NARA recently completed the digitization of a small series of off-year censuses called “Schedules of Municipal Population Enumerations, 1932-1938” (National Archives Identifier 2791185) that includes towns in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. These are the only municipal censuses conducted by the Census Bureau that are in NARA custody.

Read more details in the History Hub blog post, “Special Censuses of 15 U.S. Towns, 1932-1938.”

Release of the 1960 Census is just 9.5 Years Away

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The release of the 1960 census is just 9.5 years away and the National Archives has begun a 1960 census blog post series with the first post, “1960 Census:  NARA’s Already Working Toward 2032” at https://historyhub.history.gov/community/genealogy/census-records/blog/2022/10/14/1960-census-nara-s-already-working-toward-2032.

Census Statistics

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Census statistics and data are used a variety of ways in historical, academic, and genealogical research. Examples: How many people lived in the town in which I was born? How has the population of a particular ethnic group changed in this town over the years?

The data people want today isn’t always the data that was collected – or the data was collected but not compiled in a format that is readily accessible today. Research has its challenges!

A new NARA blog post, “Where to Find Census Statistics,” at https://historyhub.history.gov/community/genealogy/census-records/blog/2022/09/13/where-to-find-census-statistics is a first step in providing some guidance to researchers. If you have other suggestions, I’d be glad to hear them.

1950 Census Website Improvement:  Transcribed Names are Now Shown in Search Results!

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On May 17, 2022, NARA’s 1950 Census website development team made a wonderful improvement to the name search feature.  Names transcribed by humans are now shown in the search results above and below the census page image.  What does this mean?  Let’s look at an example.

Let’s search for Mildred Lauska in Ohio.  Fortunately, some human transcribed her name.

Here’s the search result showing both OCR (optical character recognition) results AND human transcription results above the census page image in the upper right under “Matched Name(s).”  (Click on the image for a bigger view.)’

Mildred Lauska, ED 92-47, with search result above the census page image

Here’s the same search result showing both OCR (optical character recognition) results AND human transcription results below the census page.  (Click on the image for a bigger view.)

  • The OCR results generated by “Machine Learning (AI) Extracted Names” are shown first:  Only Mildred’s husband, “Lauska melvins” is boldfaced because OCR had not transcribed Mildred or their daughters Joanne and Judith.
  • The “User Contributed Transcriptions” are shown second:  All persons with the Lauska surname shown in bold:  Melvin Lauska, Mildred Lauska, Joanne Lauska, and Judith Lauska.

Mildred Lauska, ED 92-47, with search result below the census page image

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Important Takeaways:

  • Thank you for your transcriptions!  They matter!  They significantly improve the search results!  In the Lauska family example, all four members of the household can easily be found instead of just one.
  • Now You Can See Everyone’s Transcriptions at Work!  Yay!
  • Narrowing your name search to include state and county always better if the name was significantly misread by the OCR and has not been transcribed, or contains common names (John, Smith, and so forth!)
  • Thank you for your suggestions for website improvements!

1950 Census Transcriptions on NARA’s Official 1950 Census Website

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Your transcriptions on NARA’s Official 1950 Census Website at https://1950census.archives.gov/ are generally indexed within 24 hours of submission. By transcribing names, you help to push those spellings – and therefore those records – to the top of search results when other users search for those names. However, your transcription will not appear in the list of “Machine Learning (AI) Extracted Names” at this time.  NARA is working on an enhancement to add the transcribed names to the search results display.

1950 Census: Let’s Understand a Few Important Things

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Posted 1 April 2022. Lightly updated 30 April 2023.

The 1950 Census release launched today at https://1950census.archives.gov. It includes a partial name index: primarily first names plus surnames for heads of households and persons in the household with a different surname. The index has a lot of inaccuracies due to optical character recognition (OCR) attempting to decipher the handwriting of 140,000 census enumerators. However, having at least a partial index online on Day 1 is wonderful. Most of the people I was interested in looking for I could find using the name index and some common sense, and if that didn’t work, I knew where to find ED descriptions and maps. I also spent time using the transcription tool to improve the discoverability of whole pages in order to help other researchers; I didn’t limit myself to just the people in which I was I was interested. Please help NARA improve the index by transcribing. Your transcriptions become discoverable by others about 24 hours after you input them.

Having spent virtually all day answering reference questions from Twitter, emails, and posts on the History Hub, it’s clear that there’s a few things that the researcher community needs to understand a little better. Among these, in no particular order:

(1) Census schedules exist for overseas American military and civilian personnel in Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa, Canton [Kanton] Island, Guam, Johnston Island, Midway Island, Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Wake Island. That’s it. Not in Germany, not in Japan, not anywhere else.

(2) If the census schedule says the “Not at home” household is on page 71 or higher, do not give up because there are “only 20” pages (or whatever) for the Enumeration District. Go to the last image, look at the Sheet Number in the upper right corner of the page. See if it is Sheet 71 or higher, and then work your way back a few pages until you get to page 71 or whatever page your “Not at home” household is on. Read my blog post for more information on Page 71 and up.

(3) Yes, you can download individual images. Look for the three dots below the blue box that says “Help Us Transcribe Names” and click on those three dots. You will then be given an opportunity to download: Click on the word download. Choose the level of quality you want (more pixels are better).

(4) You can share a link to an entire ED. You can also share a link to a single page if you’ve searched by name. Being old school, I copy and paste the link my browser shows, but there is a share feature that can do that, too.

(5) Learn by doing. If you’re not sure what one of the features in https://1950census.archives.gov does, click on it. Words in blue or highlighted in blue are clickable links. Gray features also often clickable. Play with it.

(6) https://stevemorse.org has a lot of great tools for census research – and more. Become familiar with them. Use them.

(7) NARA has provided a lot of useful resources with identical content at https://1950census.archives.gov/howto and https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1950. Read pertinent 1950 census blog posts: https://twelvekey.com/blog-posts-on-other-sites.

(8) Only one side of the census form was microfilmed in 1952. The original paper records were destroyed in 1961-63. Side 2 – which contained the housing schedules – does not exist.

Ok, thanks for reading! Let’s go transcribe some more!

NARA’s 1950 Census Website Launches April 1

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Get ready now with a sneak-peek from Michael Knight in NARA’s Genealogy Series: The 1950 Census Website: Design, Development, and Features to Expect, that premiered today, 30 March 2022. Researchers will be able to search by state, county, Enumeration District, name, and Indian Reservation.

The name search feature will not return perfect results on Day 1, however, for reasons outlined in the blog post, 1950 Census: Please Help NARA Refine the Draft Name Index! Researchers can help themselves — and everyone — by using the easy-to-use transcription tool to add complete names.

U.S. Census Bureau Webinar to Provide Overview Ahead of 1950 Census Records Release, March 14, 2022, 1 p.m.

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The U.S. Census Bureau hosted a webinar on Monday, March 14, 2022, at 1 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, to give the media and data users an overview of 1950 Census records set to be released from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on April 1.

The webinar highlighted statistics from the 1950 Census, the historical context to how the 1950 Census was conducted, and provided information from the NARA on how to access these records when they become available to the public and what resources are available now. The presenters are:

  • Sharon Tosi Lacey, U.S. Census Bureau, chief historian
  • Marc Perry, U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, senior demographer
  • Claire Kluskens, National Archives and Records Administration, genealogy/census subject-matter expert and digital projects archivist
  • Jewel Jordan, U.S. Census Bureau, Public Information Office, public affairs specialist (moderator)

Webinar video, slides, and other information

Resources: 1950 Census Records Release Press Kit

This post was updated 30 March 2022.