Data from 1950 Census available for review
Those searching the family tree now have a new treasure trove of information to dig through.
People can visit the Butler Area Public Library, 218 N. McKean St., to find U.S. Census information from 1950 on individuals’ ages, birthplaces and marital status, their country of origin, how many hours a week they worked or the highest grade of school they completed.
All of this data is available now, 72 years after 1950, as per the terms of the federal 72 Year Rule enacted in 1978.
The data is available for viewing on the National Archives’ website, but the Butler library has an extensive genealogy department, where information from the census can compliment local records to paint a picture of local and family history.
“Having this ‘new’ census year available to us is so helpful in pinning down the right information before we head back in history, especially for beginners,” said Margaret Hewitt, special collections librarian. “My key advice for the beginning family researcher is always to start with who and what you know and use that information to work your way backward through time.”
Hewitt staffs the genealogy department Monday through Friday, and said she can assist people who want to find specific records in the department, or in the virtual census data.
Robert Santos, director of the Census Bureau, said that while population data is used to determine states’ Congressional apportionments, the individual information included can be vital to following family histories.
“You can use data from the most recent census as a current portrait of America to compare to this historical data,” Santos said. “For example, the 2020 census showed that there were 331 million people living in the U.S. That is a more than a two-fold increase from the 152 million who lived here in 1950.”
Santos also said the 72 Year Rule serves to keep the confidentiality of the individuals who fill out the census every 10 years.
David S. Ferriero, archivist of the United States, said the National Archives’ staff had been scanning the nearly 7 million records that make up the 1950 census for years. The data is much more expansive than the 1940 census, he said.
“We know that this census provides population schedules for at least some Native American reservations, which are searchable by reservation name,” he said.
The released census data for 1950 shows information that can tie together family history in ways that may be unexpected, Hewitt said.
“Census records show us who was living together in a home and the relationships between those people,” she said. “Was it a single person, parents with children, a blended or multi-generation family, was someone a lodger renting from strangers. We can see neighbors next to one another and might recognize familiar names of extended family or friends.”
The census can even help genealogists find specific connections that had gone unrealized by public records.
“Often we run into an issue with female relatives because if they married it gets really difficult if they changed their surname,” she said. “Poking around can help find where those relationships connect.”
At a basic level, the census data can demonstrate changes in population across a period of time. At the time of the 1950 census, the City of Butler had a population of 23,482 people. As of April 1, 2020, the Census Bureau estimates the city population to be 13,502 people.
Census data goes back to the 1790s, and Hewitt said each new set of data released gives a new and interesting perspective to local, state and national history.
“We get a lot of people who come to the library to use ancestry for research and our print collection and we help a lot of out-of-town people who have local connections,” Hewitt said. “People who have already done family tree research are going to look for family members to enhance their existing research.”
