WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PEOPLE WHO SURVIVED THE VOLCANIC ERRUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS in 79 AD? A SURNAME STUDY MAY HAVE THE ANSWER!

I've always been fascinated by those plaster casts of victims of the eruption who had no time to get into a boat and sail away and died the horrible death of being covered over by extremely hot lava. Though they probably died quickly, there was so much terror and there had to be some excruciating pain before their spirits fled their bodies.  You may have seen plaster casts of some of them. An exhibit made the rounds of museums a while back and I went to the Getty in Malibu to see it. This fascinating article from Ars Technica by Jennifer Ouellette reveals that a surname study was done recently by Miani University archeologist and historian, Steven Tuck. 

ARS TECHNICA SCIENCE VESUVIUS SURVIVORS FLED NORTH - SURNAME STUDY

EXCERPT: Tuck spent several months developing eight separate categories of evidence (four primary and four supporting) and compiling databases of family names from Roman communities around LATIUM and CAMPANIA.  These included the origin cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum as well as the most likely refugee cities (Capua, Camae, Naples, Nola, Osti, Paestum, Puteoili, Salerno, Surrentum, Ulubrae, and Velia.)

Primary evidence includes specific individuals cited in inscriptions in both the origin and refuge cites, cases where Pompeian or Herculaneum names started appearing in communities where they hadn't existed before, and explicit references to origin....

1950 CENSUS SPECIAL COUNT OF NATIVE AMERICANS : INDIAN RESERVATON SCHEDULE

 Those of you who are interested in tracing your Native American ancestry may find that the 1950 census is helpful to you because there was a special INDIAN RESERVATION SCHEDULE on April 1, 1950.The enumerators wrote out the information on Native Americans on the regular census forms. THEN THEY ALSO FILLED OUT THE INDIAN RESERVATION SCHEDULE. 

1950 was not that long ago - only 72 years. Which means that some of the Native Americans counted on this census may be your parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents.

Some people want to know if they have Native American heritage because they wish to claim some government benefits and become members of a tribe.  Now, exploring this, I've always been told that tribes already know who the members are and how important it is to be 'card carrying' and even how important it is for a woman to have a baby on the reservation in order to be recognized by a tribe. When I've written to tribes to ask for their help so that a person who believes they do have a right to be part of a tribe can be acknowledged, I never get an answer.

I once belonged to a Native American interest group and some of the people there told stories that there were rumors in their family that a certain grandparent or great grandparent was Native American but then they also were warned that person did not want to talk about it. 

I've also encountered on old census families that were counted who had some children listed as White and some Black - because of their darker skin. When I saw family photos of those children it was clear to me that they were not African-American.  What was going on?  It was thought that it was better to be listed as Black than Native American, prejudices being what they were in some parts of the country.

DNA tests are often proving that Native American rumors are also often not true when African-American's get tested. That I heard out of the mouth of the famous Louis Henry Gates. What is going on? I guess just the opposite.  Some people thought having Native American ancestry was a plus

Let's look at this opportunity to learn more.

THIS IS THE LINK TO THE FORM USED HISTORY HUB (NARA) GOV FORM P8 1950 CENSUS

They want to know if that person HAS PARTICIPATED IN ANY INDIAN 'CEREMONIES' in 1949!

They want to know if the house they live in is made of logs or brick!

What is the blood quotient!

What languages are spoken?

AND WHAT OTHER NAME IS USED!

Obviously, the answers depended on some cooperation...

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UPDATE posted March 25, 2021 :  On April 27th the NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES WILL POST A VIDEO ON USING THE P8 Indian Reservation Schedule of the 1950 Federal United States Census on YOUTUBE.  This is a free mini class and is part of a series of videos to watch. 

UPDATE April 3, 2022  I spent about an hour looking at this special census yesterday.  Here is my commentary: On the main search page, there is a special search feature to look into this census. The cards will come up by reservation that was counted, so you will see reservation names. It will be helpful if you know the name of a reservation. It would also have been helpful if the census bureau or NARA had listed the tribal name(s) aligned with each reservation.  However, with the internet we can do a little extra research.

There is also an option to search by state.  I suppose this is because some reservations spanned states borders that one sees on maps. Of course, you can start out with surnames if you have them.  I checked three reservations, which to my surprise, had very few families listed.  In each case I saw what I would consider to be English or American names - not surnames or given names that would stick out as "Indian." This made me wonder if some families had been missed. 

I know from previous experience with "Indian counts" that some families did not trust the government and managed to avoid being counted. This has come up for people of Native American ancestry now who would like to prove tribal affiliations for government an also casino benefits or shares.  I do wonder if that is what happened in some cases during this 1950 census. If some families were simply not cooperative.  Another thing that might have happened is that the enumerators did not know where on a reservation to look for or find families. This happened in every census in rural areas.

One sample I looked at had every family member speaking English only.  However, the question about participation in Indian Ceremonies in the previous year had them all participating...

I WILL POST A BIT MORE ABOUT THE 1950 NATIVE AMERICAN SITUATION SOON.

ACCORDING TO MY REFERENCES

 

FINDING THOSE 1950 CENSUS ENUMERATION DISTRICTS ASAP! HELP FROM GENEALOGY FRIENDS STEPHEN P. MORSE and JOEL WEINTRAUB

STEVE MORSE ORG 1950 CENSUS ED DISTRICT FINDER - BIG HELP! 

I've posted links to the ever-expanding web site that is the work of these two men - and several other people - over the years.  I first learned about them when they were working on how to mine the Ellis Island site. 

The site offers a way to get the ENUMERATION DISTRICTS for the 1950 census - as well as the other United States census - in an easier way.

Even the National Archives of the United States recommends their site.

Getting Ready for the 1950 Census (stevemorse.org)

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

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Note: THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES is using non-human technology to index this census.  However, the technology may not be able to accurately "see" pages that are faded and cannot correct misspellings.  The last update on that was from mid-December. 

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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1950 CENSUS ENUMERATION DISTRICTS FOR 1950 CENSUS READY TO USE! NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES

CATALOG NATIONAL ARCHIVES ENUMERATION DISTRICTS 1950 CENSUS 

Follow this link! If you already know where the family lives, perhaps because you've got their address from the 1940 census or a collection of letters, you may be able to go to the ENUMERATION DISTRICT before there are indexes on databases. THE ENUMERATION DISTRICT (ED) WILL LIKELY BE A DIFFERENT NUMERICAL CODE THAN THE 1940 because of a surge in population! 

The concerns of the nation have changed since 1940 and there are some surprises.

This is the era in which people whose parents lived in immigrant ethnic ghettos are expanding out into the suburbs as they marry. Housing is actually affordable. Huge tracks of land are being turned into zones of single-family dwellings. Veterans can get low interest rates to buy homes on the GI bill. Women, many who worked in factories previously, are being encouraged to be stay-at-home wives and mothers. 

Question of when it will be indexed.  I'd give it about six months. ****

BABYBOOMERS!

More posts on this subject coming up!

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

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*** addition February 14, 2022

The NATIONAL ARCHIVES 1950 CENSUS PROJECT IS also using a form of non-human -technology to provide INDEXING and the public will be able to correct information they find for the pages that did not digitalize well due to their condition. This is similar to the FamilySearch site that also offers registered users the easy ability to change surnames that are misspelled and so on. Unfortunately, it also allows people to change correct information to incorrect information if they so desire.  

CAROL BOWMAN's NEW ESSAY SUBMITTED to BIGELOW INSTITUTE FOR CONSCIOUSNESS STUDIES

CAROL BOWMAN NEW ESSAY  This will take you to her site and the page where you link to the essay that you can download as a PDF file or read on line.

Always impressed with her work!

UPDATES at ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT

I've been blogging here for a long long time!  Through the years Google Blogger has changed or updated and I change the format or something else about the way the blog looks.  Recently I decided to update my blog visually with the idea that it might be easier for my readers to find subjects if I tagged them and put a picture icon on each post in a series. So, a reader can go to pages rather than archive.

I've also moved some lists that were at the bottom of my blog up into PAGES. I realized that the links on the posts are usually the first place a reader is going to go. I hope that you will enjoy and learn from my blog.

IS THERE ANYWHERE TO GET GOOD FREE FAMILY PEDIGREE CHARTS TO ORGANIZE MY WORK : QUESTION FROM READER

Question from a Reader via Comments

You seem to be against posting your research on databases. I used to be able to pick up charts free or maybe pay ten cents a piece for them at the LDS.  Where can I find good old fashioned free paper charts for my research?

Answer from Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

I agree that keeping organized is essential for genealogy researchers and family historians. It helps you avoid repeating research you've already done and if you step away from it for a while it will help you pick up where you started. 

On line I found some good free charts from THE NATIONAL GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY that are as free as the cost of printing them. 

There are others available online. I find I have to adapt charts for my own use.

I once saw an amazing chart that a man had hand designed, a fan chart that he set up on an easel with a family crest (coat of arms) in the center.  I love the visuals!  It gives a good perspective.

Since my personal research goes back more than three generations, all my research would not fit neatly on one page but at the same time, it's the format that works best for binders.  So I might modify a predesigned chart.  Also, I always include any siblings of various persons and information on their marriages as well as those who are never married and were without children.  I don't want to forget that they too lived and contributed to the family and are part of the lineage. I find family group sheets are best for that.  Using family group sheets and handwriting discoveries on them helped me both find and eliminate families in pre-database days. I still do this.

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SWANEE RIVER

Image from Dover Publications

 

Ancestry Worship - Genealogy