Why so many Not Home, Vacant etc
I have been looking at census images for over 50 yrs now and never seen the quantity of poor quality enumeration. I worked the 1980 & 1990 census & we were required to go back til we got the info
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I have noticed that too. What are you putting there when you index? "not a name?"
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Click on TRANSCRIPTION ERROR at the bottom right of your screen. Then click on NOT A NAME and submit.
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It was a Saturday, maybe people did shopping, other activities with family outside home. If someone not at home, they were supposed to be contacted later, and would show up out of order:
"The Enumeration District’s sheet (page) numbers skip from “x” to 71? Are there pages missing?
No. The enumerator was to number the sheets (pages) of the census form in order beginning with “1” (one). Nearly all Enumeration Districts could be completed on fewer than 70 pages. Persons enumerated out of order were counted on sheets beginning with the number “71.” Therefore, if a person is on a sheet numbered 71 or higher, the researcher will know that person was enumerated out of order for some that may be indicated on those sheets, or deduced from header information. Any “skipped” page numbers under 71 were not needed and not used. https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1950/faqs
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Every census has had issues with people not being at home. The 1950 census was the first that instructed the census takers to note when they visited a residence and no one was home. It happened before, but the closest we saw this being noted in earlier censuses was in 1940 when the "revisits" started on page 64 of the enumeration district.
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I've reviewed several of the 1950 census documents, the full set for a given enumeration district. It appears census takers may have been instructed to list every address they visited, even if vacant, and write down if no one was home or the property was vacant. However, at the end of each set of forms for the enumeration district, all of the skipped homes appear to have been revisited and the people listed. For example in a Milwaukee Wisconsin district for 1950 I noticed "no one home" on the first visit, but a note (most likely made after they revisited the home) would indicate, "see page 71 line 10" (or whatever the correct page and line number were). Then on that page and line you will see the address entered and the people listed.
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