I got a call from a friend, asking me if I was going to apply to be a census worker for the 2020 census or volunteer for the 1950 census project. These projects are going to be a HUGE endeavor, the 2020 many times more HUGE than the 2010. The population expanded rapidly. It was the post World War II baby boom. Suburbs were being built and Americans were expanding out from living in cities. GI's were using the low interest mortgage rates for veterans to be home owners. Stay at home moms were financially possible. Some of us are going to read this 1950 census in 2020 (or thereafter) and just wish we were living back in the day.
Genealogists get very excited about census and census is called "The backbone of American genealogy."
I have such memories of the 2010 reveal. The NATIONAL ARCHIVES SITE was not functioning completely or well for a while as people rushed to use it. Of course other database owners attempted to have theirs up better and faster. Indexing lagged behind. Some pages were missing or out of order. I used the National Archives site at a few libraries including my local LDS Family History Center to get in there with my list of people who had not appeared on 1940.
These mix ups and frustrations one also experienced when the Ellis Island ship manifests site first went up. I remember finding ways to get what I needed, ways to mine the data.
I spent hours reading 1940 census pages one after another because they were not indexed yet with mixed results. I still wish I were turning microfilm rather than clicking the mouse till I need a forefinger joint replacement.
I've learned a bit about the data on census and why looking at the name of the census taker can be a good thing. For instance I noticed German surnames of census takers associated with assignments of going into Polish and Hungarian neighborhoods. The language the census taker speaks may reflect the spelling of the surnames.
So pre-2010 of course I applied to be a census worker. I took a class and the test and got an A. Soon I got a call asking if I speak Spanish. I do not. I didn't get the job. They wanted people to be in their own neighborhoods and mine at the time probably had a significant percentage of Spanish speakers. I met the man who did get the job. He was frustrated. He said that he had to go back to a building three times because he was having trouble being let in. People were not answering their doors. After three tries his supervisor would go with him and then would make the building manager let them in. Overall they thought they were encountering illegal residents who did not want to be on census or talk to anyone governmental. Probably true.
So I suspect in our political climate (i.e "Build the Wall") that the 2020 census next year will be fraught with such issues. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF CENSUS. It's a statistical analysis that helps our government understand the population and these statistics are often cited when our officials are looking for causes or funding.
Although I do not believe in the past the census information was shared with the INS (or equivalent) people who are not citizens may worry.
Think of the past census, say taken of those Ellis Island immigrants in which census takers asked people if they were citizens, if they were aliens, if they were in process, and what year they were naturalized. There is a historical precedent for asking residents about their immigration status. Sometimes when I cannot find people who left a ship on a census I wonder if they hid out for the same reasons as the people do in recent history.
C 2019 All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights. This post has been edited and expanded July 2019
