1950 U.S. Census Anticipation

The 1950 U.S. census was released on April 1, 2022. There has been so much hype about its release, especially in the past month -- on the date of the release, there were even virtual parties during the "midnight hour". 

I wasn't excited about it at all, and I attended one webinar that left me so confused. But by the evening of April 1st, curiosity got the best of me, so I found myself taking a look at the Ancestry.com site and National Archives site. Both had prominent link assistance on their home pages for the 1950 census. To me, it seemed that Ancestry wasn't quite ready for the release (see image below). I found the National Archives site much easier to work with because I didn't have to figure out an enumeration district. There were other major sites that had assistance on their landing pages but since I was overwhelmed with all the hype, I just concentrated on the two sites I mentioned.

I already knew who I primarily wanted to find in the 1950 census: my parents, Willis B. Williams and Evelyn O. Brown; my maternal grandmother, Lucy Brown; my mother's siblings; my father's grandmother, Mary Lane Button; and my father's siblings.

I didn't like that I had to have an address to find the enumeration district (ED) on Ancestry. The whole point of my looking at the 1950 census was to find out where family lived.

Image from Ancestry.com on 1 April 2022 at 8:06pm

National Archives site

I liked that I could put in name, city/county, and state on the National Archives site. However, I didn't have much hope in finding m Brown family because it's such a common name.

MY MOTHER'S FAMILY

I was so happy that my maternal grandmother, Lucy Brown, and her children were the first "hit" when I did the search on Archives.com

1950 U.S. census, Buffalo, Erie County, NY, ED 65-124, sheet 15, household 111, lines 1-5 (Lucy Brown family); U.S. National Archives,_1950 Census_(https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

In the top image, my grandmother, Lucy Brown, 46, is listed as a widow, living at 586 William St., Buffalo, Erie, New York. Living with her are all her children -- daughter, Verlie, 25, a registered nurse, employed in private duty; son Arthur, 23, a presser at a tailor shop; daughter Vivian, 21, a college student; and daughter Evelyn (my mother), a waitress in a cafeteria. 

The second image is from the bottom of the census page. Sample #4 from the supplemental questions is my Auntie Vivian.

Maternal grandfather, Noah Brown and his sister, Ida Brown living in Cleveland Ohio was a surprise. I initially looked for Noah in Buffalo NY and then looked at Cleveland because that was his place of death in 1966. Interesting that Noah is listed as widowed (as is my grandmother in Buffalo NY). My happy surprise was finding my great-aunt Ida because I haven't been able to find much information on her as an adult.

1950 U.S. census, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH, ED 92-897, sheet 6, household 61, lines 17-18 (Noah Brown and sister Ida Brown); U.S. National Archives,_1950 Census_(https://1950census.archives.gov/search/). 

Also in the household is Jordan, *unknown*, number 19 with "SEE NOTE" which is at top of census form.

MY FATHER'S FAMILY

Richard L. Davenport and Anna M. Davenport raised my father, Willis B. Williams and his sister, Joan Williams, when their mother passed in 1941. Anna M. Davenport (Button) was one of his mother's sisters. In this record, my father isn't listed because he's in the Army from 1949-1951 during the Korean Conflict. However, his sister, Joan, age 19 is listed. They live at 209 Walnut Street in Buffalo NY.

1950 U.S. census, Buffalo, Erie County, NY, ED 65-150, sheet 1, household 7, lines 22-24 (Richard Davenport family); U.S. National Archives,_1950 Census_(https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

In 1950 my father's grandmother, Mary Button, was living in Detroit Michigan, with a daughter, Verna and son-in-law, Robert Bynum. Finding my great-grandmother was another guessing game because at the time of her death in 1955 she was living in Buffalo NY with her daughter and son-in-law, Anna M.  and Richard Davenport.

1950 U.S. census, Detroit, Wayne County, MI, ED 85-1072, sheet 3, household 18, lines 25-29 (Robert Bynum family); U.S. National Archives,_1950 Census_(https://1950census.archives.gov/search/).

I am pleased with the family I have found. However, I did not find my father's siblings in Detroit, Michigan. Their surname is Burkett. I only got one hit on that name, followed by pages and pages with various name spellings. So finding them will be a search for another day.

Copyright © 2022 by Sandra Williams Bush, Ancestor Callings: Georgia and Mississippi Roots. All Rights Reserved.