1950 Census "W o" in race field?
I have been helping out with Arizona and California and noticed that people from Mexico or of likely Mexican heritage show a "W" in the race field but also a small "o"? The enumerators instructions shows to use "W" only. Am I supposed to use the dropdown of "White" or type in the W o? Thank you.
Answers
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Found this information on race categories in the US Census:
'In 1940, the only change was the elimination of the “Mex” category, and Mexicans “were to be listed as White unless they were definitely Indian or some race other than White.”
In 1950, the census form listed the following categories: “White (W), Negro (Neg), American Indian (Ind), Japanese (Jap), Chinese (Chi), Filipino (Fil),” and other races to be spelled out.'
There is no separate race category for those of Hispanic/Latin descent, they were considered white. So if it has a "W," you should enter "White."
Don't know what the lowercase "o" would mean, especially without seeing the entry.
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Here's an example. It appears like this on sheets in multiple states. I haven't found anything about it in the enumerator's instructions. Thank you for your help
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I found this for much of New Mexico as well, but it's always an enumerator's mark, so I've left them at "W"
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The OCR scan of the 1950 Census often reads "Negro" for "Mex" for those of obvious Mexican descent. I have been inserting W "White" instead in such cases.
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