HONOLULU COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY            April 9, 2022

The Honolulu County Genealogical Society met by Zoon on April 9th, 2022 at 9AM.  th

Below are the minutes:   

MINUTES FOR THE APRIL 9, 2022          Meeting began at 9:00 a.m.

OLD & NEW BUSINESS:

No Minutes for March 12, 2022 Meeting

Presentation by Donna Wendt: Searching for census records using “ED” (Enumeration District) numbers “An enumeration district (ED) is a geographic area assigned to an individual census taker,      or enumerator, usually representing a specific portion of a city or county. The coverage area of a            single enumeration district, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, is the area for which an enumerator could complete a count of the population within the allotted time for that particular census year.”    Quote taken from an article, “What is a US Census Enumeration District?” found on ThoughtCo.com.      The 1950 U.S. Census is out. Genealogy researchers are anxious to dive in. Why aren’t 1950 Census records popping up on our trees? We have to wait for the data to be indexed. Without a name index, it is necessary to know the E.D. of where your ancestors lived to locate their Census records. For now, your search will have to be by location and not by name, until volunteers are able to complete indexing the 1950 records.

     Donna shared a great website to help search the Census records using ED’s – stevemorse.org.It titles itself the “Unified Census ED Finder”. You can also find it under “One Step ED Finder”.Enter the Census year, State, County, City or Town, House Number and Street Name in the appropriate boxes. To help narrow your search, enter street names bordering your city block, if you have that information available. A technique in finding the names of cross streets is to go to a modern map. Unless it is a development after 1950, there is a good chance that the streets will have the same names as in 1950.      

If your information is correct, ED number(s) will pop up for the area you are searching for. Choose one  Then you will have to choose which viewer site you would like to use – NARA Viewer (National Archives & Records Administration), Family Search Viewer or Ancestry Viewer. Choose one and the census pages for that ED area should be available for you to review.

      If the enumerator did not find anyone to provide information for a particular address, you will see “no one home” notation. Look along the line and you should find a “see sheet _” reference. You will need to search for that sheet number for the household’s information.

    There were standard inquiry lines in the 1940 census which were removed from the 1950 census. Some of these questions now called “sample” lines in 1950 were asked of randomly chosen individuals, not the entire population. Questions regarding residence in 1949, education level, work, income and military service.

What if you do not have the house number and street address? On the home page of stevemorse.org, again enter 1950’s census > click on See ED maps > click on Get ED Map Images > click on the map area you with to search.    Donna demonstrated searching ED maps for various members.

Ancestry Viewer:

Search > 1950 Census > Explore Maps > click on your area of interest > ED District number should come up > Records  

    At this time, you are unable to save to Ancestry these records because they are not indexed yet, but you can save the image to My Computer. Ancestry’s goal for 1950 Census is to be very thorough indexing all the information.

Family Search Viewer:  At this time, it is difficult to print or save any information found. As of today’s date, My Heritage has already 4 states indexed, but they have found some errors and are working on correcting them.  Possible reasons if you are unable to find your relatives on a census, or if the information does not seem correct:

     Enumerators in the past were paid for information recorded per household. Trish mentioned that there could have been some workers listing down made up names just so they would be paid. Some information could have been provided by neighbors if the residents were not home or were unable to speak English. One can only hope the information provided by a second party was accurate.  

       Another concern would be people not answering the knock on the door for whatever reason – is trust of the government, fear, working or just not being home at the time, etc.

CALABASH BOWL:

Discussion for possible future excursions:

 Share lunch together at the Waioli Kitchen & Bake Shop (formerly Waioli Tea Room) in Manoa Valley. Hours are 8 a.m to 1 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays.

 Attend the Cemetary Pupu Theatre presentation by the Hawaiian Mission Museum at Oahu Cemetary. This program features 5 reenactments on the lives of 5 historical figures in Hawaii’s past. Snacks and drinks are included.

--Trisha shared about her enjoyment of ancestry trips which focused on searching for family graves. It can be fascinating viewing the many interesting, informative, and even artistic, tombstones found in various cemeteries around the world. Some headstones contain valuable information such as the person’s occupation and how they died.

     A local landmark Donna recently discovered was the 119-foot pagoda located in Nuuanu Cemetary It was built in 1966 and houses niches and urns. It is closed due to disrepair, but it is still a wonderful structure to admire.  Tours can be found on YouTube taking you to burial places of famous people.

    Any ideas on where to obtain help with unrolling/unfolding old fragile letters?   Suggestions – ask the librarians at the UH Library or Bishop Museum. Trisha also suggested speaking with Kathy Hudson.

     Keep Donna in your thoughts and prayers for a swift and full recovery as she undergoes knee surgery on May 10, 2022.

Meeting adjourned at 11:16 a.m.

(05/12/2022 by Isabelle Rivera)