And so the race began ... at 12:01 a.m. the 1950 U.S. Federal Census was released to the public using a new, dedicated website that provided an Artificial Intelligence/Optical Character Recognition generated index.
At an Amazon web services site, bulk downloads of the National Archives and Records Administration digitized microfilm images began downloading to Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast, FamilySearch and likely others.
It seems MyHeritage won the race to provide the free digital images of the 1950 Census on its website. There is no index yet but the images are there to browse. [Remember Michigan residents have free access to MyHeritage Library Edition through www.mel.org the Michigan Electronic Library.]
Ancestry has the 1950 Census images for 19 states already online for browsing. Again for free. And according to the Ancestry blog, their own AI/OCR index to be audited by FamilySearch.org volunteers will be free too. FamilySearch is also downloading and uploading the 1950 Census to its website. You can see this in the Search Images area by searching United States or your locations. Or from the 1950 US Census Community Project page, Explore Images. Both Ancestry and FamilySearch are a work in progress. There are likely other websites going the bulk download route.
See you someday soon at our favorite library!
LE
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