1950 CENSUS! BABY BOOMERS and SPECIAL INFANT BABY COUNT!

BABY BOOMERS! 

ANYONE BORN BETWEEN 1946 and 1964 is considered to be a BABY BOOMER!  

Since the enumerators were out there collecting information that would present a statistical body of information, a snapshot of the United States on April 1, 1950, what about all those babies born between January 1, 1950, and March 31, 1950?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: On APRIL 2nd, I WENT INTO THE NARA SITE AGAIN and LEARNED THAT THE INFANT CARDS HAD BEEN THROWN AWAY AT SOME TIME BACK IN THE DAY and so we will not be able to find them anywhere on the NARA site. I apologize for my misleading you with the original post as below.  However, I spent an hour on the site myself and then went back to the earliest mention of these cards and printed out the explanatory essay about the cards from the site thinking I just needed a break. Later, relaxing, I read the print out. That the cards WOULD NOT BE PART OF THE RELEASE OF THE 1950 CENSUS was on page 4 of 5 about them and blended into a paragraph.  That should have been the first thing NARA mentioned about the cards on the top of page 1. They are of course, part of the history of the census, and were used all those years ago for a statistical analysis, which can be interesting for other reasons.

The explaination for why they were thrown out is given this way:  The census bureau was checking these cards against REGISTERED BIRTHS IN EACH STATE.  As such they were looking to find out how many babies in a three month sample were born and not registered for birth in the first place.  Apparently, there was a good chance that a baby born in the 1950's despite the emphasis on VITAL RECORD KEEPING, was never registered by its parents. Therefore, if you know or suspect or wonder if your ancestor may have had a baby in 1950, the first thing you might do is check to see if the birth was registered; the baby still might have been born, been unregistered, and then died before April 1, 1950. Also there is a remark that some babies born in 1949 (my guess is December 1949) were also missed.

So those of us who have experienced difficulties in our research because we could not find any evidence of a birth via vital records or church baptismal records further back in history, perhaps because a certain county or state did not require it, must be a bit surprised by this.  There are many people alive who had to apply for a birth certificate later in life; These are titled as "Delayed" in county archives.

 
According to the NARA essay, some babies (called live births) were missed in 1950 because the baby had been born but died, or because the baby was born in a rural area, or because the baby moved with its family.

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A SPECIAL INFANT CARD WAS FILLED OUT!

And this isn't all. There were actually three forms to potentially be filled out. The government wanted to know how many live births the woman had*** From the questions, we can tell that the United States government wanted to know how that child was being supported. The UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU web site, previously linked to, has this PDF file with all three and the instructions. UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU SPECIAL BABY COUNT 1950

Full information about the parents including the mother's maiden name, the name of the hospital where the child was born, and the child's father's occupation, including what industry he worked in Sexism alert! The education of the mother was asked but NOT HER EMPLOYMENT.  

WHAT ABOUT A WOMAN WHO GAVE BIRTH TO A CHILD THAT SHE GAVE UP FOR ADOPTION? (My question, not theirs!)

****Let's just say that it's my guess that most women who did so, perhaps before they were married to the person they were married to in 1950, would not put that child down on this form.  It's my guess that a typical American at the time was both far more trusting of the government than people today are and would be more cooperative but also have a far greater sense of their right to personal and medical privacy. Further adoptions were Closed if they were legal.

I can't wait to find a child that was stolen from a family!  (UPDATE: This census will not help.)

UPDATE March 25, 2022 : The question was only be asked of women who are married or who have been married and are separated or divorced....

Click on the tab  Genealogy Help - 1950 Census to bring up the series!

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THIS INFORMATION COULD HAVE BEEN BE VALUABLE TO GENEALOGIST and ANYONE INTERESTED IN THE HISTORY OF WOMEN!

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WHAT WAS DIFFERENT FROM PRIOR CENSUS? TRANSIENT COUNT! 1950 UNITED STATES CENSUS : UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU

THE CENSUS GOV : 1950 CENSUS : UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU  

The questions asked on a census change and, as experience allows us to rethink how to enumerate and deal with increasing population, workers are retrained.  They may also seek out populations not previously counted.

A CENSUS intends to provide a valuable statistical analysis, implied is in order for individuals, politicians, and governmental agencies - such as schools - to get funding using those statistics.

THIS SITE GIVES AN OVERVIEW OF EVERY UNITED STATES CENSUS.

You learn which states and territories were counted.  

What about people who belong to a family group but are not living there at the time, such as military personnel and college students?

THIS CENSUS INCLUDED "TRANSIENTS"

What is a Transient?  During the previous Great Depression era, a transient was thought to be a man, a hobo or bum, someone riding the rails, a person who did not live in a stable residence or with a family.  Assumptions were that the person was alcoholic.

Then during the Great Depression so very many people were living in poverty, it wasn't at all unusual for families who were unable to afford rent to move in with others or keep moving houses.  A single woman would usually take work as a live-in maid or nanny or find herself living in a home run by a religious group.  Some turned to prostitution.

In 1950?  The United States is having a good economy. Veterans use the GI bill to buy houses on low interest loans.  Veterans of World War II are considered to be honorable people and employers hire them. The notion of who was a transient changed. because there was so much more opportunity.

Besides those who fit the definition of homeless today, those living in a mobile home/ camper were considered transient. If you were living in a hotel or a place like the YMCA, you were also considered transient though maybe you were just a person who was trying to move to a big city while on a budget and looking for work.

In order to try and count these people in three visits, the night of April 11th, the morning of April 12th, and the night of April 13th, 1950, were used to go out and find transients. The enumerators were to go to campgrounds and 'missions' and boarding houses and basically seek out any place a person without a stable residence might live.

A special INDIVIDUAL CENSUS REPORT FORM (ICR) was used and this form was FILLED OUT BY THE INDIVIDUAL RATHER THAN THE CENSUS TAKER.  So if you know or sense that an individual is missing from a family group, this may be where to find them.

Today many people in my city are living in vehicles that do not have the features of a mobile home such as a place to lay down properly or a toilet. I don't believe they were counted - or wanted to be counted - in this last homeless census, the 2020. Some people prefer their independence from the restrictions of shelters. Every library I go to has a good number of people coming in who are homeless, sheltering for as long as they can where there is protection from the weather and toilets. Every coffee house I go to also has people who spend many hours there, often with laptops, who are transient, and for the price of a coffee or a little nibble, are also sheltering.  (I do wonder about local homeless counts, a separate census.)

Additionally, in the 1950 census Americans who were on ships, employees of the government in other countries such as at embassies, and Americans who were ex-pats (when cooperative) were counted.

EXCERPT:  Americans abroad were enumerated for the first time in 1950.  Provisions were made to count members of the armed forces, crews of vessels, and employees of the United States government living in foreign countries, along with any members of their families also abroad. This enumeration was carried out through cooperative arrangements with the departments of Defense and State, the United States Maritime Administration and other federal agencies that took responsibility for distributing and collecting specially designed questionaries.

Click on the tab Genealogy Help - 1950 Census to bring up the series!

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