Family Migration - 1950

This is an instructional activity designed for high school or middle school students, connecting them to previous generations via 1950 United States Federal Census records. The activity involves data collection, data submission, and results exploration, which can all be done securely at the individual classroom level. 

This activity utilizes  AncestryClassroom , Ancestry’s free resource for K-12 schools with billions of searchable historical records. There is no cost, but your school must apply for access. (Note that it may take up to five business days for AncestryClassroom access to be granted after you submit your application.)

Every ten years, as directed by the Constitution, the U.S. government must count every person living in the country. The first census was conducted in 1790 and there have been 23 censuses since then. The raw data collected by censuses takers, or “enumerators,” can legally be  released to the public after 72 years . On April 1, 2022, the National Archives and Records Administration released the original 1950 census records. This was the first census in which every state, territory, and the nation’s 100 largest cities recorded a population over 100,000.

The 1950 census asked each American for their name, address, age, birthplace, employment status, and many other pieces of information that can illustrate someone’s life at that time. 

Family migration

Families often move from generation to generation – within a country or beyond its borders.  Migrations can occur for many reasons, including jobs, marriage, politics, war, or a million other reasons. Where was your family in 1950? Did your relatives (or another chosen person) live near your school or home? Did they live in the same state as you do today? How does the location of your family in 1950 compare to those of your classmates? 

Use AncestryClassroom's 1950 Census Search and find one of your relatives, noting "Home in 1950", street name, and house number. These relatives may be your grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins. It will be best to talk to a relative before doing the search. Having a full name, birth year, spouse, or childrens' names will help you find the census record. If the person has a common name (like "Smith") and/or lived in a large city, you'll want as much information as possible. You will need to login to  AncestryClassroom  to search. [ Non-classroom search tool .]

If, for any reason, a relative was not in the USA in 1950, pick a famous person and try to find their record in the census.

Submit as much data about your relative as you can. This includes data from the Home in 1950, Street Name, House Number, and Occupation fields in the census record. Submit the data in the form below to compare with your classmates.

Teachers: Please pick a random number between 1,000 and 99,999 and ask all students to enter the same number in the "Classroom Id" field.   This number will allow your students to filter the submitted data such that they only see their classroom data.

Explore the data collected below in charts, graphs, or maps. Enter the Classroom Id chosen by your teacher to filter the map to only display your class data. Zoom the map into your area. Remember that if only a city and state were entered in the address field, map markers will be placed at the center of that city. The pop-up window will show a counter in the lower right corner.

Based on your data analysis, can you make statements about your class's families from 1950?

• What patterns do you notice? 
• Where did people live in 1950? In which locations are they clustered? 
• Are there outliers that don’t fit a general pattern? 
• In 1950, did your relative live near or far from where you live now? 
• Why do you think your family moved since 1950, or why did they stay? 
• What kinds of employment did your classmates’ relatives have in 1950? Does that tell you anything about the place where they lived

Family migration in the US is not unusual, although it can be effected by many factors. Do you think your class's results would have been the same if your school was in a large city or small town? Would the results be different if your school was in a different region of the country (for example, New England, the South, or Southern California)?

Perhaps it's time to tell the story of your family or a family member. If you have an ArcGIS Online school account, consider creating a storymap of your relative. A few short examples are below.

•  Baker 
•  Skinner 
•  Sharpe 
•  Andersons 
•  Shields 

Alternatively, participate in another  GeoProject .