At around 2 AM this morning, I tried the NARA 1950 site, which was operational at 1 AM. The artificial intelligence that read the names and provides an INDEX without having to know or impute an ED is impressive. It could put a lot of humans out of work, sad to say. However, there will be a need for humans to make corrections.
The first two surnames I put in, I had correct hits on right away. The next two names also came up easily though there were incorrect letters. I clicked on a few that were almost right, and it brought up what I was looking for. In each case the name brought up the ED and also went right to the census page.
The next few searches, however, DID NOT lead me right to the census pages and the REASON is that the FIRST/GIVEN NAMES are listed in the place of SURNAMES! This reflects the error of the census taker. I will have dozens of Catherines to go through - or maybe Katherines.
All of this was done knowing the state and county.
I will go back in and put in a few ED districts and read page by page next.
Here were the surprises:
My own mother's age was considerably incorrectly reported so I doubt a census taker actually talked to her. Probably the report was via a landlord.
A cousin's father, who had in 1940 been the sole support of his parents, was now over 30, married to a much younger woman, and they were living with her mother, who was also had other children and their children living with her. And his wife might have been a twin!
My relative who would be married in two years is the only child of ten who is still living with her elderly immigrant parents. Which means that they will live alone for the next decade, before he dies.
Another relative is living with his parents, as are his brothers, his sister and her husband. He is the only man in the household who is not working. Previously on the 1940 he was shown as a high school drop out. I knew that he was soon going into the CCCs. In the 1950 he has completed high school and is also enrolled in school. He is listed as a World War II veteran. This makes perfect sense. He used the GI Bill to become more educated. (He attended one of the many high schools who had programs for veterans to complete high school and then went further.)
*****
A goal would be to find the location of a person who was in foster care, lived with relatives, and then went into an orphanage and to also locate his parents.
I will also be looking to see if age reportage is consistent from the 1940 in an instance where I suspected a particular woman might really not know how old she was; no birth certificate or record of baptism was ever found, though in the 1960's these were requested from the Old Country. Now that I'm using the Old Country archives on line, I'm hoping to perhaps get closer to the year of birth.
All for now Friends!
I guess I'll get some sleep
