Millions of families can now research their history with 1950 U.S. census records
CNN
Close to 7 million records from the 1950s U.S. census have been made public.
The digital records were released on Friday and are available to the public free of charge at a dedicated website, allowing viewers to research their family histories and backgrounds. They include 6.57 million population schedules -- many of which include multiple families and households -- and 33,360 Indian Reservation schedules for Native Americans living on reservations.
In a video celebrating the release of the archives, Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero explained the National Archives has been preparing for the release for a decade. The images shown on the website are actually microfilms taken by the bureau in 1952 that had to be carefully scanned by archive staff. The original paper documents were destroyed in the 1960s.