Sepia Saturday 622. Fifth in a series about family history discoveries in the recently released 1950 U.S. census.
Recently, fellow blogger and author Marian Burk Wood wrote a post about Decoding Ancestor Occupations in the 1950 US Census.
Apparently after the census takers went door to door, there was back office work to code everything for statistical purposes — resulting in occupation numbers being added to those who were working.
To help researchers discover what these codes mean, Stephen P. Morse and Joel D. Weintraub have created an online deciphering tool — and I couldn’t wait to try it after reading Marian’s blog!
Dad’s DuMont occupation code
At census time in 1950 my dad, Norm Charboneau, was between jobs since my parents and maternal grandparents were planning to go into business together. So, the census taker put OT (for other) under occupation and indicated he was looking for work.
Fortunately, the census form had the job description covered since it further asked, “If looking for work, describe last job or business.” So my dad’s entry said “Engineer” in the “Television” industry.
Later, back at the census office, Dad’s response was coded “044-659-1.” That’s ‘s what I plugged into the Morse-Weintraub decoder — and voilà!
In his resume, Dad said he worked as a Quality Control Engineer at DuMont Labs in Clifton, N.J. — which also operated a television network. But he told me that, given how new television was in 1948, the job also involved convincing consumers to buy a DuMont TV set — with a promise of repairs if anything went wrong.
He left DuMont in 1950 to return to New York State with me and my mom — but a record of his first post-college job remains in the 1950 US Census.
Gramps’s self employment occupation code
Meanwhile, my maternal grandfather Tony Laurence (aka Gramps) was also enumerated in the 1950 US Census as OT (other) — because he, too, was looking for work.
Before the 1950 US census, Gramps operated a garage and auto parts business at 86 E. Fulton St., Gloversville, N.Y. (today the location of a discount beverage business). My mom told me his line of work helped the family survive the Great Depression because everyone would repair their car then rather than buy a new one.
By 1950, however, Gloversville was in decline and my maternal grandparents wanted to launch a family business elsewhere, along with my parents. So by census time Gramps had sold the garage and their house, and my grandparents were living in a rental apartment.
Nevertheless, for the census he gave his last job as a “Mechanic” in the “Garage” business — giving him the occupation code of “550-816-1” — which the Morse-Weintraub decoder translated as follows.
No surprises, but still fun
Alas, there were no real surprises in the occupation codes for my dad and grandfather. But it was still fun to run their numbers through the decoder and get a bit more detail than the few words on the census form.
And who knows? I have more ancestors and collateral relatives to search for in the 1950 US census, so there could still be surprises around the corner.
Up next, my lost Infant Card from the 1950 US census. Meanwhile, please visit the blogs of this week’s other Sepia Saturday participants.
© 2022 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.
