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FAMILY GENEALOGY LIFE LEARNING HISTORY
US Released Data on 150 Million People
Is Your Family Among Them?
The incomes, addresses, birth info and other details of more than 150 million residents has become available online. Are your parents’ or grandparents’ details going public?
Don’t panic! The data is from 72 years ago. It’s the US Census releasing records about everybody living in the USA in 1950.
Take Advantage of the Data
If you’re stuck at home and have too much time with nothing to do, now is the perfect time for you to start doing genealogy (the family tree) as a hobby. And this is a great time to begin, due to the new information that will be available to you.
Curiosity will be your super skill as you piece together the big picture of your family. I have learned so much about the people I come from — they are crazy, and motivational, and they broke my heart with sadness for the things they endured.
Many of my ancestors were poor. One couple had to choose which two of their six girls to give up for adoption, because they could not afford to keep them all.
I have read the letters my immigrant relative wrote to his wife on the ship as he was crossing the Atlantic in third class a few years before the Titanic sunk. Meals and showers were not guaranteed.
A father lost his eldest son, just 16 years old, in a mine cave-in. His wife also died from childbirth, leaving him (a miner, too) with an infant daughter to raise, along with three boys under 10.
Mine the Data for Clues
The US Census Bureau released the data from the 1950 census in April 2022. That’s 150 million people’s info that went public online. You might have several relatives in it. Your grandparents are probably in it.
Check them out as young people — what did they do? How much did they make? Where did they live? What was their rent or mortgage payment? How many years of school did they attend? This is the first time…
