Can you view a Census Record with the National Archives?

You can only view the 1950 U.S. Census Record using the National Archives website HERE from the comfort of your home. Using the National Archives, they can guide you to websites where you can view the other Census Records, but in most cases you have to subscribe to a website or be using a facility that allows access.

The National Archives houses a large number of records from America’s founding documents to census records and a lot in between. It can be very easy to get lost amongst the current of information they throw at you, though it is impressive that they have managed to make the site as organized with so many different materials.

But today we are focusing on just getting to the Census records and how to view what you are looking for. If you just want to skip to the site with the census, click HERE or scroll to the end.

If you want to follow along the steps continue reading.

Step 1!

Go to the National Archives Website. https://www.archives.gov/ 

Step 2

Type what you are looking for (CENSUS) in the search bar in the upper right-hand corner of the website. Select “SEARCH”.

Step 3

You will be brought to a page with recommended links to pages on the National Archives Websites with your search word “CENSUS”. In this case, there are A LOT! WE only want the very first link, because this is the main Census page.

Step 4

This page talks about Census Records and guides you in different directions depending on what you need. We need to select “Search Census by Year and Ancestor’s Name”.

Step 5

The next Website that appears will have a list of Census Records that have come out from 1790 – 1950.

Step 6

Select the year you would like to know more about.

When you have click on the year you are looking for the title will open showing you where you can access that census. Be it from Familysearch.org, Ancestry.com, or other locations. It will tell you if you require a subscription, an account, or a certain location to access the records.

Regardless, they have all the links you could want in one place. You don’t have to hunt things down and get even more confused, it’s right there with detailed information.

Step 7

Ignoring all the other years that you can’t easily view I want you to select the most current Census Records available as of today (08/30/2024). That is going to be the 1950 Census.

By selecting it you will be able to go to the official 1950 Census Website, which should look like this:

Or you could have gone to this link: HERE

Either way, you are now here and have earned this privilege! Savor this. And maybe add it to your Bookmarks on the browser or save a shortcut to your desktop.

Follow me to my Blog Post: “How to Search Within the 1950 Census?” where I breakdown how to find a search and define each aspect of the page so you can get the most out of your hunt.

And always, happy hunting!