June 28, 2022

WIRED: Democracy Is Asking Too Much of Its Data

WIRED: Democracy Is Asking Too Much of Its Data. “WE’VE ALLOWED OUR democracy to devolve into a game of musical chairs. The population of the United States has tripled, while states must fight over the same 435 seats and must see their fates determined by an algorithmic system plagued by arbitrary outcomes. It is time to enlarge the House of Representatives, a conclusion shared by a bipartisan committee of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. “

Research & Opinion 0
May 31, 2022

MyHeritage Blog: MyHeritage Census Helper™ Gets a Major Upgrade

MyHeritage Blog: MyHeritage Census Helper™ Gets a Major Upgrade. ” In the initial release, the Census Helper™ calculated a list of family members to find in the newly released 1950 U.S. census records as well as all available U.S. census collections. Now, we have expanded the Census Helper™ to include census records from other countries, so people with roots in places outside the U.S. can take advantage of it as well — and we’ve added some handy interface improvements that we’ll expand on below.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
May 22, 2022

NPR: These 14 states had significant miscounts in the 2020 census

NPR: These 14 states had significant miscounts in the 2020 census. “For the 2020 census, all states were not counted equally well for population numbers used to allocate political representation and federal funding over the next decade, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Thursday. A follow-up survey the bureau conducted to measure the national tally’s accuracy found significant net undercount rates in six states: Arkansas (5.04%), Florida (3.48%), Illinois (1.97%), Mississippi (4.11%), Tennessee (4.78%) and Texas (1.92%).”

Tweaks & Updates 0
May 2, 2022

Associated Press: Next release of 2020 census data postponed until next year

Associated Press: Next release of 2020 census data postponed until next year . “The next release of detailed data about U.S. residents from the 2020 census will be postponed until next year because the U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday that it needs more time to crunch the numbers, including implementing a controversial method used to protect participants’ identities. The delays leave government budget-makers, city planners and researchers in a lurch because the detailed data are used for planning future growth, locating schools or firehouses and research.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
April 18, 2022

Brass Oak Genealogy: 1950 US Census: I’m Here To Help!

Brass Oak Genealogy: 1950 US Census: I’m Here To Help!. “You’ve probably spent some time over the last two weeks trying to find people in the 1950 US census (I know I have!). But it’s not an easy task, especially without a solid index and the search tools that we’re used to on genealogy websites. That said, I’ve created a variety of videos that address some of the issues and offer solutions and workarounds.”

Useful Stuff 0
April 11, 2022

WIRED: The Census Is Broken. Can AI Fix It?

WIRED: The Census Is Broken. Can AI Fix It?. “The once-a-decade endeavor informs the distribution of federal tax dollars and apportions members of the House of Representatives for each state, potentially redrawing the political map. According to emails obtained through a records request, Trump administration officials interfered in the population count to produce outcomes beneficial to Republicans, but problems with the census go back much further.”

Research & Opinion 0
April 10, 2022

Genealogy’s Star: 1950 U.S. Census Project Moving Rapidly Forward

Genealogy’s Star: 1950 U.S. Census Project Moving Rapidly Forward. “If you go to the FamilySearch 1950 U.S. Census Project page… you will see that four states have been completed and that only two more are open right now (as of the date of this post). Checking handwriting recognition from Ancestry.com is a different experience from indexing. The accuracy is significant, and it is apparent that the entire project will likely be completed in a matter of months and perhaps weeks.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
April 6, 2022

The Guardian: From grief to paw prints, people share Ireland census ‘time capsule’ messages

The Guardian: From grief to paw prints, people share Ireland census ‘time capsule’ messages. “Some were funny, some were angry, some were utterly heartbreaking and all were written in the same blank space of Ireland’s census form, a ‘time capsule’ section. In what Ireland’s Central Statistics Office says is a world first, the official census left a blank space for people to leave messages for future generations. The voluntary section of the 27-page form is to be made public in 100 years but many people have shared their messages on social media.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
April 4, 2022

My Ancestors and Me: Until There’s an Every-Name Index for the 1950 U.S. Census

My Ancestors and Me: Until There’s an Every-Name Index for the 1950 U.S. Census. “Without an every-name census index it might be harder to find your people, but it’s still possible. These are my suggestions for the steps that will make it easier.” Let me add one because it tripped me up: search by county AND by city if you have an address. I searched by county and couldn’t find the people I was looking for until I searched by city. There were two separate sets of records.

Useful Stuff 0
April 4, 2022

Chicago Sun-Times: Tracking down the family and the famous

Chicago Sun-Times: Tracking down the family and the famous. “I know I’m not alone here. But I was pleasantly surprised Saturday to see the big front page treatment the Sun-Times gave Friday’s unlocking of the 1950 U.S. Census Bureau data by the National Archives. I thought the joy of plunging into old records and tracking down relations was a personal quirk. Apparently not.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
April 2, 2022

Washington Post: The first census records of four American presidents … almost

Washington Post: The first census records of four American presidents … almost. “On Friday, the Census Bureau released the individual records collected during the 1950 Census. (Bureau policy is to maintain the privacy of census documents for 72 years.) There has probably never been a census release in which so many living Americans can trace their own roots, given the size of the baby boom and the extended life expectancy that boomers enjoy. And that offers us an interesting historical challenge: digging up the first census records of our first three baby-boom presidents.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
April 1, 2022

Associated Press: ‘Gold mine’ of census records being released from 1950

Associated Press: ‘Gold mine’ of census records being released from 1950. “The records released by the National Archives and Records Administration will be indexed into a searchable website. The digitized, handwritten forms have information about household members’ names, race, sex, age, address, occupations, hours worked in the previous week, salaries, education levels, marital status and the country in which their parents were born. The website will include a tool allowing users to fix any incorrect names or add missing names.”

New Resources 0

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