Prepare for the 1950 Census Release with our New Interactive Map!

As most of us know by now, the 1950 federal census will be released on 1 April 2022, and many of us are chomping at the bit to see ourselves, maybe for the first time, on a federal census. We have been spoiled over the years, as all the previous censuses are now indexed, making our relatives easier to find. Of course, some of our family members are lost in mis-indexing confusion, but we can usually track them down with creative searching.

When the 1950 census is released in April, it will be posted immediately on the National Archives (NARA) website, and the big players in the genealogy world, like Ancestry and FamilySearch, should have the images up very quickly as well. What no one will have, however, is a completed index, which means that if you can’t wait to find your family, you will have to do some advance preparation before you get to the images. You will need to know:

• exactly where your family members were living
• the enumeration district (E.D.) in which that address was located. (For those new to genealogy, an enumeration district is an area assigned to a census taker [enumerator] that he/she is expected to complete within an allotted amount of time.) 

Once you have the address and the E.D., you should be able to browse the images, which will give you a head start while you are waiting for the indexing to be completed.

A New Interactive Map of 1950 St. Louis City and County E.D.s

St. Louis Genealogical Society tech volunteer, Jim Bellenger, has created another wonderful resource for those searching for family in St. Louis City and County. This new interactive map is now on the StLGS website and links to the National Archives where a series of maps will help you to identify the E.D.s you need. Our website page has complete instructions for using the NARA maps, so be sure to read carefully because there are no instructions on the NARA pages. 

So, how does this work? Let’s say we know that our family was living at 6741 Crest Avenue in University City in 1950. (And if we didn’t know that, we’d start by using a city or county directory to determine their address.) Next step is to go to the page on our website and look at the map of St. Louis County. We know that University City is just west of St. Louis City, so we will need to click on the number five in a circle. 

When the map on the NARA website opens, click on it to enlarge it. The enumeration district numbers are written in orange, so we will want to check those, and we find that University City is in an area that combines a large range of E.D.s, from 155 to 208. (You can ignore the 95 in front of each number.)

That’s a lot of possibilities, so here is a hint on how you can cut the number down. Use the website of noted genealogist Steve Morse. Scroll down to the census section and click on “Unified 1880 to 1950 Census ED Finder”; then choose the 1950 census (way up on the top). Enter the state, county, city, and street address and the site will narrow down the possibilities for you. Now, instead of dozens of E.D.s, there are only three, and you are ready to more easily find this family when the census debuts in April. 

We hope you have had some time to explore the 1883 Hopkins atlas and the Missouri immigration map we told you about two weeks ago, but if you haven’t, here’s the link to that blog post. Have fun!