NARA released the 1950 population census schedules for researcher use on April 1, 2022, at https://1950census.archives.gov.
THANK YOU for transcribing the 1950 Census on NARA's Official 1950 Census website! Transcribing names makes searches better for yourself and others - and you may learn something about the community or Enumeration District that you are transcribing!
However, if someone else has already transcribed a name, please don't transcribe it again unless they got it wrong! That's just duplicate effort that "reinvents the wheel." There are millions of names that still need transcribing.
As one example of unnecessary duplicated effort, I happened to notice that most of the names on the single census page of ED 92-1, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, have been transcribed two or three times. There are only 18 names on the page. One of the names was transcribed once; 10 were transcribed two times; and 7 were transcribed three times! All the duplicate transcribed entries are identical. The page was transcribed once in the wee hours of April 1, again almost in its entirety on April 9, and then partially on July 22! Why?
| Two Examples of Duplicated Effort, ED 92-1, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio |
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How do you know what's already transcribed? After you are logged in, when you click on "Help Us Transcribe Names" you will see what's already been transcribed. That gray scroll bar at the bottom allows you to see what's been transcribed already. If you choose a specific line number in the rectangular box at the top, you'll see what's already transcribed for the particular line:
| Note Gray Scroll Bar Below the Names That Allows You to View All Transcribed Names at Once | Line 3 was Chosen: All Transcriptions for that Line are Shown |
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You can see what's been transcribed WITHOUT logging in. Underneath each census page are two lines that read: "Machine Learning (AI) Extracted Names" [and] "User Contributed Transcriptions." If you click on the "down arrows" at the right, those boxes will open and you can see existing AI and Human transcriptions. (Human transcriptions are added below the image on weekdays 24 to 48 hours after they are contributed; please be patient, particularly if you transcribe on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or on legal holidays.)
Underneath each census page are two lines that read: Machine Learning (AI) Extracted Names [and] User Contributed Transcriptions - notice the "down arrows" at the far right | If you click on the down arrows at the right, those boxes will open and you can see existing AI and Human transcriptions |
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Thank you again for transcribing!