1950 Census and AI

I am amazed — the Artificial Intelligence extraction of names from the 1950 census is really working!!! Already !!! Go to the National Archives at https://1950census.archives.gov/ and get into the 1950 census search page at https://1950census.archives.gov/search/?page=1&state=IA and put in your state, county, AND try a name search. It is working already for most!!

One hint, I wasted an hour trying to find the correct pages for my home town. I followed instructions and put in State and the County. It just would NOT find my address. Finally, I put in City first, and then it came up correctly!! Someone made a typo for my city, it is Waterloo, Black Hawk instead of Black Hawk, Waterloo.

The National Archives is open, working, and FREE !!

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BTW, if you want to correct some of the data, select the “Help Us Transcribe Names” tab above the image and then check your SPAM folder if the security code does not quickly appear.

Monthly Meeting – April 7, 2022 – “What to Do with All of Your Family Stuff…Heirlooms and Research” by Kathy Nielsen

We have all collected family heirlooms and research over the years. But will our family want to continue collecting these items? Let’s talk about how we might pass on these family “gems” to future generations.

Kathy Nielsen is a reference librarian and historian. She is currently a popular genealogy speaker on the Monterey Peninsula. She hosts a virtual monthly program at the Monterey Public Library. All Things Relative: Finding Family at the Library. Kathy has been featured on Lisa Louise Cooke’s weekly YouTube program, Elevenses. She is a co-founder of the Monterey County Genealogy Society’s special interest writing group, Off the Charts. Kathy incorporates her skills as a historian, storyteller, and librarian in her search for her family’s history.

The Zoom meeting will start at 7:00 pm sharp. Zoom meeting details will be sent by invitation only. If you are not a member and wish to attend, send an email with your email address to our Membership VP, Marilyn Ruccello .

For additional information, call (831) 915-9465.

If you are not familiar with Zoom, click here.

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”You will be exactly half as old as your mother only once in your life, and that is when you are the same age she was when she gave birth to you.” – Reddit

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1950 Census

By law, census records are sealed from public view for 72 years. The US census has been taken every ten years starting in 1790. When the 1950 census is released Friday, it will not have a name index. So finding people in the census will involve searching by location instead. Even when a name index becomes available, there will still be many reasons for doing locational searches.

The census is organized by Enumeration Districts (EDs), so the location needs to be converted to an ED before the census can be accessed. The One-Step website (https://stevemorse.org) contains numerous tools for obtaining EDs.

The census day for the 1950 census was April 1, 1950. That doesn’t mean that the census taker knocked on the door on April 1 and took down the information. He might have come anytime during the month of April. But the questions he asked pertained to April 1.

Ancestry. com has lots of interesting information about the 1950 census. See https://www.ancestry.com/lp/family-history/1950-census. For example,

“The 1950 Census also included supplemental questions. On each census page, the fourth person and then every subsequent fifth person was asked supplemental questions—for a total of six people per page. This means that for households with five or more members, presumably someone would get the additional questions.”

For many people, including myself, this will be the first time they should appear in a census. There were 151,325,798 people counted that year. I wonder how many of that group are still living, are genealogists and are looking for themselves…

Roberta Estes explains lots on her blog, see https://dna-explained.com/2022/03/30/1950-census-will-be-released-on-april-fools-day/

Searching with enumeration district will be the way to go until the names indexes are ready. If you are having difficulties finding yourself, you can visit our own Family History Center next Tuesday or Thursday. The volunteers are all experts in searching with Enumeration Districts.

If you were born after April 1950, too bad, you might have to wait another 10 years to find yourself! 🙂

The National Archives is located here https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1950

SNP Tracker

They have been updating the migration routes at the SNP Tracker web site. Here is the new path for my Y-DNA of I1a-M253 > DF29 > CTS6364 > S4795 > S4767 > S4770 > Y13495/Y13016 > Y29634/S4774 > A13294 > FTA86767.

You can trace your haplogroup, Y-DNA or Mitochondrial DNA , at this site:

http://scaledinnovation.com/gg/snpTracker.html

Membership Renewal Time is Here!!

Spring has come and it is time to remind everyone that MoCoGenSo memberships will expire soon, and it is time to renew. The dues will remain the same at $20.00 for individuals and $25.00 for families (add $7.50 for paper copy).

An important way to learn more about your ancestors and their lives is to join a genealogy society that focuses on the area in which your ancestors lived. Genealogy societies conduct research and preserve information about a specific area, and most publish some sort of newsletter, journal, or other periodical. The articles offer insight into the area and the people, and can provide help in conducting your research in an area. There are genealogy societies at the national, state, county, parish, province, and other levels. Annual membership fees are reasonable and the benefits are considerable.

The Monterey County Genealogy Society is one of these organizations right here in your own back yard. It serves its members in many ways. The board of directors is made up of members just like you.

Remember our society is only as strong as our membership, and those who get involved.

OUR MEMBERSHIP YEAR RUNS FROM APRIL 1 TO MARCH 31 OF THE FOLLOWING YEAR. For renewing members, you can renew using the membership form in your recently received newsletter. New or renewing members can download and print a copy of the Membership Application by CLICKING HERE. There will always be copies of this form at our monthly meetings.

Join me by staying with MoCoGenSo and getting the E-Newsletter.

Thank you for being a supporter!

A list of the DNA Sessions from Rootstech 2022

Roberta Estes created a list of the DNA Sessions that were presented at the 2022 Rootstech conference. The list is great, and I thank her much. But I wanted a FILE that I could keep on my computer which would allow me to make notes without having to go to her blog every time. I created a spreadsheet which you can download, see below. Please note that it first opens in a Read only mode, you have to actually download it to be able click the links.

I tried to create a PDF that would be “safer”, but formatting issues prevented creation. This is an XLSX file.

DNA SESSIONS ROOTSTECH 2022Download

Top Ten RootsTech 2022 DNA Sessions + All DNA Session Links

She has done it again this year! Roberta Estes, the purveyor of the excellent DNAeXplained blog, has compiled a list of all the DNA session links for Rootstech 2022. She has included a list of the top 10 DNA sessions.

You can see them here. She has given us all permission for us to copy the list.

https://dna-explained.com/2022/03/08/top-ten-rootstech-2022-dna-sessions-all-dna-session-links/

Many thanks to Roberta.

Find Genealogy Meetings Near The Central California Coast

GSSCC => Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County

https://scgensoc.org/ and https://scgensoc.org/event-calendar/

MoCoGenSo => Monterey County Genealogical Society

https://mocogenso.org/

Monterey Public Library

https://monterey.org/services/library/events/index.php

Salinas Public Library

https://salinaspubliclibrary.org/calendar

SVCGG => Silicon Valley Computer Genealogy Group

https://www.svcgg.org/ and https://www.svcgg.org/meetings.html

Rootstech 2022 and the DNA Discussions Group

Rootstech 2022 is happening now.  There are many excellent presentations happening every day covering almost every possible topic relating to genealogy.  The recorded presentations, called Sessions, will be viewable throughout the year. 

The good news is that many of the Sessions from 2021 are still available, the new ones in 2022 are being added to the list!  So you can see last years and this years.

Rootstech has a “Playlist” which are Sessions you have tagged for yourself to watch later.  All you need to do is build the Playlist, and then view them at your leisure.  You still need to sign in to Rootstech to see your Playlist.  Some of the Sessions are in Youtube, you can build a list for yourself to watch later outside of Rootstech, if you wish.

The following description is oriented towards DNA but applies to ANY topic in Rootstech.  

Step 1 – Sign in to Rootstech and Click on Sessions.

Step 2 – Select your topic and select your year. DNA is one of the topics. There are 169 DNA Sessions from 2022, 88 left from 2021, 257 in total.

Step 3 – The list of presentations will be populated on the right. Go through the list and Click on the PLUS sign for those you want added to your Playlist. The Plus sign changes to an X. If you change your mind or after you have watched it, click the X.   This process can take a while! 

Step 4 – Watch the presentations.  Come back whenever, sign in to Rootstech, and Click on the Menu in the top right, then Click on My Playlist at the bottom and “watch on” ! 

I use a laptop with headphones so I can multitask in front of the T-V.  One could use a tablet to watch the videos while using your laptop to follow along in FTDNA or MyHeritage or whatever.

The DNA Discussion group could just watch these all year!  🙂

Membership Renewal Time is Here!

Spring has come and it is time to remind everyone that MoCoGenSo memberships will expire soon, and it is time to renew. The dues will remain the same at $20.00 for individuals and $25.00 for families (add $7.50 for paper copy).

An important way to learn more about your ancestors and their lives is to join a genealogy society that focuses on the area in which your ancestors lived. Genealogy societies conduct research and preserve information about a specific area, and most publish some sort of newsletter, journal, or other periodical. The articles offer insight into the area and the people, and can provide help in conducting your research in an area. There are genealogy societies at the national, state, county, parish, province, and other levels. Annual membership fees are reasonable and the benefits are considerable.

The Monterey County Genealogy Society is one of these organizations right here in your own back yard. It serves its members in many ways. The board of directors is made up of members just like you.

Remember our society is only as strong as our membership, and those who get involved.

OUR MEMBERSHIP YEAR RUNS FROM APRIL 1 TO MARCH 31 OF THE FOLLOWING YEAR. For renewing members, you can renew using the membership form in your recently received newsletter. New or renewing members can download and print a copy of the Membership Application by CLICKING HERE. There will always be copies of this form at our monthly meetings.

Join me by staying with MoCoGenSo and getting the E-Newsletter.

Thank you for being a supporter!