The National Archives News has released an article on the 1950 Census Will Increase Access to Records. The holdings at St. Louis include the military personnel records of individuals who separated from service more than 62 years ago, as well as the civilian personnel records of former federal employees who separated prior to 1952. Census records have long been an important resource for archives staff to help locate a requested individual’s record.

The National Archives and Records Administration has been seriously impacted by the pandemic, resulting in a large backlog of records requests and limited ability to permit researchers to use facilities.

The 1950 date is the first census following World War ll.  Additionally, in 1973 the sixth floor of the National Personnel Records Center burned for four and a half days, destroying some 16–18 million Official Military Personnel Records for the Army and Air Force. Army personnel in 1945 alone numbered over 8 million, and while the tragic loss covered a period from 1912 to 1960, the estimated loss of Army records is 80 percent. The 1950 census overlaps overlap with the service period of records affected by the fire. It’s because of the possibility that “service” is listed as the kind of work an individual is doing. the information found in the census could lead to other records that could list military service, such as Selective Service. NARA’s collection of Civilian Agency records run through 1951, which is an indication of government employment that could lead to an Official Personnel Folder.

The 1950 US Census will be released on April 1 2022, but it won’t be indexed. That will take some months for genealogy organizations such as FamilySearch and Ancestry to index the records and digitize them.

To read a series of questions and answers on how the upcoming 1950 census release might expand access, go to:

https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/1950-census-stl

To read previous postings about the 1950 U.S. Census , and more, go to the archives of the IAJGS Records Access Alert at:  http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/private/records-access-alerts/.  You must be registered to access the archives.  To register go to: http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/listinfo/records-access-alerts   and follow the instructions to enter your email address, full name and which genealogical  organization with whom you are affiliated   You will receive an email response that you have to reply to or the subscription will not be finalized.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee