Back in 2012, I was really excited about the release of the 1940 US Census - I called it once in a lifetime and it was. But low and behold, these past 10 years have gone by fast and another 'once' is happening. The 1950 census data has been released.
72 years ago, census takers where going around the country gathering information about the population. My my mom was 12 years old and growing up in small town Wisconsin. As a matter of fact, her home town (and mine) had a population that was less than a quarter of its size today. 1950 ushered on an era of prosperity and growth for much of the country. World War II was in the rear view mirror and the future looked bright. In my own family search, many of the boys and girls from the 1940 census are adults and starting families of their own by 1950 and there are new names in the lists - new children who were not yet born in 1940. There are also those that have disappeared from the record, yes, some have died in the intervening years. The census brings home the the full circle of life in cold hard facts.
