Accessing Genealogy Research Resources
My name is Noemi Mendez
I'm in your instructor
and I am a Data Dissemination Specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau.
In this module you will learn about Enumeration Districts,
Enumeration District Maps and Descriptions
and we'll have a hands-on exercise on Enumeration District Maps.
Enumeration Districts
Enumeration Districts were created by the Census Bureau
to map the area or areas that were covered by enumerators,
the areas varied by size.
Census enumerators were hired by the federal government to conduct the census.
Each enumerator was assigned an area to cover.
Enumerators would ask the residents questions from the census form.
Enumeration District Maps and Descriptions
Enumeration district maps and descriptions assisted in the administration and data collection activities
They were created from 1880 to 1970 and illustrate the geographic boundaries and other features
and show the number of the enumeration district.
The content and size of the enumeration district maps vary from census to census.
The map descriptions are general, brief descriptions of the street boundaries.
Currently enumeration maps and descriptions can be viewed at the NARA website
For the next part of this module,
we'll look at how to search for 1950 Census records using a name, state and a county.
Next, if you don't have all this information and need to search for a record
by district enumeration area
I'll show you how to find an enumeration district map using county and state information only.
Once you know the enumeration district number,
I will show you how to find an enumeration district description
that you can use to verify the streets and blocks
that make up the enumeration district.
Searching 1950 Census Records
Here we are at the Archives website
If you scroll down,
you'll see a big announcement for the 1950 Census
how it's now online,
so click here.
There's lots of information on the census,
how to find aids,
instructions for enumerators,
blank forms,
lots of really good info.
We're going to go back up here and click on the search the 1950 Census
Um, click begin search.
Read through the tips that really give you some good information
on how to go ahead and narrow your search.
Today we're going to be searching the state of New York.
County, will be Kings County.
So, it starts filtering out a lot of stuff
starts with your first enumeration district,
your state,
your county,
and it tells you how many pages are there in the population schedule.
You can view the Enumeration District Descriptions and the ED maps.
Let's try our search.
We're going to search for an individual named Louis Rodriguez.
As you will be able to tell there may be multiple records showing individuals with the same name.
So, let's say I've searched through the records and I've discovered
that Louis Rodriguez the individual that I am searching for is in Enumeration District 24-2024.
So, let's go ahead and do a couple things here let's look at the population schedule.
You can go ahead and zoom in,
so we can see here, here's the form.
Here's the questions that are asked on the form.
For the head of the household,
for all persons in the household,
and then for persons 14 years of age and older.
Other things to look at here
is
what the form looked like.
Again your state, your county, your incorporated place.
The enumeration district number.
In case there were a group quarters,
the form,
the date of the decennial census.
Uh, the date the sheet started or the enumerator's name
and then the sheet number.
So what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna go ahead and use the download option
and download the schedule, so we can take a closer look at it.
Okay, here's our form.
Let's take a look and see what we find.
Here is the um streets here that are
on this census enumeration form.
So, you'll have South Second Street ,
White Avenue,
then the unit numbers and whether or not um it was a first floor, second floor unit.
Here we have at 301 Grand,
uh Mr. Louis Rodriguez,
so it tells us he's the head of the household.
he has, had, a wife named Jenny
and a daughter named Maria,
and you can see how they fill out the information for sex,
age,
where they were born
and then some information about his occupation.
he worked at a sewing machine up plant he was an operator
and he worked on ladies coats in a factory.
So that's some really neat information to found about this individual.
Um but I’m going to go ahead and double check and make sure we didn’t miss anyone
so it does say the household is continued on the next
sheet,
so we're gonna go ahead and check the next sheet.
You can also check and see um if there was more information collected for an individual
for the five percent sample.
There's some info here,
so make sure you search the entire page before you uh move on.
So, here's the continuation of that record that we were looking at.
this sheet is connected to Mr. Rodriguez
and we can see that there is more information on his household,
so he had a daughter named Nilda,
a son named Luis,
a son named Jose,
and a son named Samuel,
and a son named Orlando.
So you can find more information about his family
with the ages ,
where they were born.
So, make sure you check the sheet after the one that you're looking at
so you don't miss out any of the household members.
Enumeration District Maps and Descriptions
Okay, let's go ahead and look for the Enumeration District Maps.
Click on the 1950 link again.
Search the 1950 Census.
Go under resources,
now down here you have lots of information, um that's really interesting to go through
we're going to go ahead and click on the Enumeration District Maps.
So it tells you information how it shows
of the geography that's available,
how they're annotated,
so we're going to go ahead and use this link here.
I will use the search bar to look for the 1950 Kings County, New York Enumeration Map,
and here's our map.
So, there's a lot of information here because it's a very
um there's a lot of people that live here,
it’s an old city so there's a lot of um, small blocks
so just kind of scroll around to you figure out
you know where your area is
for instance here,
I know the area around here
so, I know it's just north of the Williamsburg Bridge
and you can kind of scroll in and see
you know here's a seam of the the map but you can kind of scroll in and look at
you know you can look at some of the boundaries
and you can kind of figure in roughly where the block was where your individual lived in.
Again, I also recommend um downloading this information
so you can do a uh, a more seamless search.
Um, here is our
enumeration area,
so this corresponds with the population schedule that we looked at.
How to find the Enumeration District Description
So, now that we have the population schedules
let’s go ahead and search for the maps and the descriptions.
So, we know from the census form the information we need to find
the maps
so I just went ahead and opened up a new browser
with my same filters,
New York and Kings County.
If you scroll down here you can type in the Enumeration District
so ours is 24-2024
hit the search button,
okay,
so it goes ahead and filters everything out
so we have the district description,
tells us the borough,
the assembly district,
and what street it's bound by.
It tells us it's 34 pages,
so let’s view the original description.
Once again, feel free to go ahead and download this
so you can see the information better.
But you can just kind of scroll here and see for this area
it tells us again the streets Brooklyn Borough
the part of assembly district 14 track 551 part of it
it's bound by Grand,
Berry,
South Second,
and the East River,
and it tells you this this enumeration district
consists of the following blocks 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Final quiz
Which one of these statements is false?
Enumeration districts were created by the Census Bureau to map the area that were covered by enumerators.
The areas were the same size.
The map descriptions are general brief descriptions of the street boundaries
The areas were not the same size, the areas varied by size.