More 1950 Stories

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Another Value of Records

My Dad was listed at college in Eugene, Oregon. He had a part time job as a janitor for the Oregon State College of Education (U of Oregon now). It listed his address (College St) and his roommates and their part time jobs.

The fun continues--I took pictures of what I found; I was doing the Family Review so I could see all of the fields! I sent pictures to my parents and went to visit them yesterday.  

Art Sperber

Dad remembered many things about that time and his time on the basketball team, cut short by the Korean War, his roommates (even his sister remembered his roommates) and that led into stories he remembered about his summer jobs; one playing as a pitcher for a logging mill baseball team, coupled with a job at the mill. But when the regular pitcher came home from National Guard and Dad felt really homesick for home cooking, he quit and went home to "the farm" in Tillamook for the rest of the summer.  

My Dad is 93 and is sharp in some ways, but doesn't remember what day today is, asking many times a day; is not certain after a nap if it is morning or night, but the 1950 Census record brought the times all back for him! Wonderful family experience!

It is wonderful that as you review, you can review by surname! This is Art Sperber, my Dad and my mom Carol Wall Sperber; in May Dad will be 93.


Art and Carol Wall Sperber

Submitted by Mary Anderson


Success and Disappointment

I was very excited to find my family's 1950 census.  It would include my parents, my brother and of course ME!  Well, I found it, however, the three of them were on one page and I was at the top of the next page. To make it even worse, we were living in my grandparents' triplex. My grandparents lived in one unit and we in another. They weren't on the census either. They were "not at home". Talk about disappointment.    

Submitted by Bobbi Boyd



Help Yourself and Serve Other Genealogists

https://www.familysearch.org/getinvolved/1950

Our society can review the index for the 1950 US Census as a group, allowing us to track the work we do together. It also gives us access to a simple messaging system on FamilySearch.org. You need only a free account on FamilySearch.org to be part of the group and the indexing (really a review) effort nation-wide. 

If you are usually an Ancestry.com user, this will help you too! Ancestry did the first part, running the NARA 1950 images through their fancy AI-assisted machine indexing already. As they pass along the states to FamilySearch, we can opt to:

1. Review Names: "Verify the spelling of people’s names in the 1950 census." This is my favorite! 

2. Review Document Header: "Verify the details found at the top of the 1950 census form." I like this one, too.

3. What we've all been waiting for, Review Families: "We’ll show you names that need to be grouped by household. Next, you’ll verify the details listed for each person."

So click to join our group: South King County Genealogical Society.  And then head to https://www.familysearch.org/getinvolved/1950 and choose which task you prefer. You can back out to this page to quit or change places or tasks at any time. 

Submitted by Valorie Zimmerman

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