I thought we would have better searchable indexes to the 1950 census by now. The one done by the National Archives is OK. It is about 50% accurate. That is pretty good for indexing handwritten documents.

Ancestry is also running their own computer indexing. So far the have indexed Wyoming, Delaware and maybe Vermont. Then they also have indexed the territories of Alaska, Guam and maybe the Canal Zone.

Lisa Cooke released this video yesterday with Jim Ericson from FamilySearch. Mr. Ericson says the they hope to have the entire 1950 census indexed by mid June. They are going to index every field on the census page.

Right now you can go to this page and start indexing. There are three indexing “reviews” that you can do. First is “Review Document Header” which makes sure that the page headings are correct. Next is “Review Names” which just shows the names and you get to correct or accept the names. I was able to review pages with some of my distant relatives in New York State. Those reviews go pretty fast. The last is the most complex. The “Review Families” is the review that connects family members on a page and then checks all the rest of the fields for the family.

Give one or all the index reviews a try. In the end this will be the best index to any US census. That will make it easier to find all your relatives.