Exploring U.S. Presidents’ Lives in 1950 Census Data

By Naama Lanski ·

October 30, 2024

Censuses are essential for family history research and for historical research in general. In many cases, just a single line, containing brief answers to approximately ten questions, can tell a whole story. No wonder genealogists love censuses.

The U.S. census has been taken every 10 years from 1790 to the present day. However, access to the full details is restricted by law for 72 years. Accordingly, the most recent census currently available is the 1950 census.

Search the 1950 U.S. Census on MyHeritage

To demonstrate how much we can learn from census records, we dove into the 1950 U.S. Census to see what they reveal about 6 recent United States presidents.

Joe Biden in the 1950 census

In 1950, 7-year-old Joe (Joseph Robinette) Biden Jr. lived in the home of his 66-year-old maternal grandfather, Ambrose Joseph Finnegan, at 2446 North Washington Ave in Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. Ambrose is listed as widowed: his wife, President Biden’s maternal grandmother Geraldine, died a year earlier in 1949. However, he was not left alone. 8 more family members lived with him at the same house.

The Biden family in the 1950 census

Among the 8 people living with Ambrose was his daughter, Catherine Eugenia (Jean) Finnegan Biden (32 years old) — President Biden’s mother — with her husband, Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. (34) and their 3 children: Joseph Jr. (7) and his two younger siblings, Mary Valeria (4) and James (Jim) Brian (1 year old, listed as “May” i.e. born in May the previous year). The youngest child of the Bidens, Francis (Frank) William, was born 3 years after the census was conducted, in 1953, around the time when the family moved out to live on their own in the Wilmington suburb of Mayfield in Claymont, Delaware.

According to the 1950 US census, Jean Biden was listed as “keeping house,” did not “work the previous week,” and was not “looking for work.” President Biden’s father, Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. (34), is listed in the census right after his wife as the “son-in-law” of Ambrose. Biden Sr. declared he had worked 40 hours the previous week as an “automotive inspector” at “Auto Truckrolles.”

Biden Sr. appears on one of the census’s “sample lines”, which means he was required to provide additional information. In the section of additional questions for people who fell on sample lines, we learn that Biden Sr. lived in his in-laws’ house the previous year as well. His parents were both born in the U.S.; he completed 12 years of school and didn’t serve in the U.S. armed forces during WWI, WWII, or “any other time, including present service.” In 1949, Biden Sr. worked 52 weeks, earning a yearly salary of $3,200, which in 2024 U.S. dollars is approximately $41,700 (calculated in accordance to the CPI — Consumer Price Index).

Joseph Biden Sr. appears in the sample line, with additional information added in the section below

For comparison, a peek at the 1940 U.S. census showed that prior to her marriage, Jean was listed in the census as a telephone operator at a private company with a yearly income of $312 (approx. $6,900 in today’s dollars), but according to the census, Jean worked 16 hours during the week before the census was taken. Biden Sr. worked in 1940 as a “superintendent of a plant” and his income was $1300/year (approximately $28,800 in today’s dollars).

The other three people living with Bidens in 1950 were Jean’s older brother (Biden’s maternal uncle) Edward B. Finnegan (38), listed as single and working in a restaurant as a steward. Ambrose’s sister-in-law (Biden’s maternal great-aunt) Gertrude Blewitt, aged 70 and “never married,” also lived with the family. She also appears on a sample line from which we further learn that Gertrude didn’t have any income, including from pensions, allowances, etc. She completed 8 years of school and also lived with her brother-in-law’s family the year before the census in 1949 (and likewise a decade earlier, according to the 1940 U.S. census).

Finally, the last person living with the family was listed as a “lodger,” but was actually also part of the family: Frank Biden (32), President Biden’s paternal uncle; his father’s younger brother still single and working as… an enumerator at the U.S. Census Bureau!

Donald Trump in the 1950 census

140 miles away, at 85-14 Midland Parkway, Queens, New York, 4-year-old Donald Trump was also enumerated to the U.S. census for the first time in his life.

In 1950, 7 other people lived in the same house. His father Fred (43) was listed in the census as a “proprietor” in the “building construction” industry. His mother Mary (37), born in Scotland, was listed as “keeping house,” did not “work the previous week,” and was not “looking for work.” Other family members are Trump’s siblings: sister Mary Anne (13), brother Fred (Freddy) Jr. (11), sister Elizabeth (8), and the youngest brother, Robert (2 years old).

The last person listed as living with the Trump family was their 29-year-old “nurse maid,” Henessy Kathleen, born in Ireland and listed as not having U.S. citizenship at the time. According to the census, the scope of her employment in “house work” was 60 hours per week.

The Trump family in the 1950 U.S. census

The 1940 U.S. census shows that a decade earlier, the Trump family lived less than half a mile away, at 175-24 Devonshire Road. Fred Trump, listed this time as a “builder,” owned the family’s home, which was valued at $12,500. That is approximately $277,000 in today’s U.S. dollars (calculated in accordance to Consumer Price Index). As the “highest grade of school completed” Fred is listed as graduating 4th year of high school. According to the census, Fred Trump’s income was $5,000 in 1940 (approximately $111,000 in 2024 dollars), and he worked 52 weeks in 1939 and 40 hours the week before the census was taken. According to the 1940 U.S. census Mary Trump’s highest grade of school completed was 8th grade of elementary school. In 1940 her occupation is also listed as “home housework,” and apart from the 2 young children of the family, Mary Anne and Fred, 37-year-old Janio Cassidy — the Trumps’ housemaid, originally from Ireland and listed as naturalized — also lived in the house. She completed the 8th grade of elementary school, worked 40 hours during the week prior to the census, and in 1939 worked 52 weeks for a yearly salary of $600 (approximately $13,400/year in today’s dollars).

The Trump family in the 1940 U.S. census

George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr. in the 1950 census

Back to the 1950 U.S. census, we would expect to find two former U.S. presidents in one house: future 41st president of the United States, George H. W. Bush, almost 26 years old in 1950, with his son, then 4-year-old George W. Bush, the future 43rd U.S. president.

George W. Bush was born July 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut, while his father was attending Yale University after service in World War II. In 1950, the family moved to Midland, Texas, but none of them are listed there in the 1950 U.S. census. George H. W. Bush appears all alone at 720 E Conyton Blvd. in Compton, California. He is listed as a “salesman” in the “oil field industry,” and during the week prior to the census, he worked 48 hours.

George Bush Sr. in the 1950 U.S. census

We turned to previous censuses in order to learn more, and found 15 year-old George H. W. Bush in the 1940 census living with his family at Grone Lane in Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut.

His father, Prescot Bush, was an investment banker, and represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate from 1952 to 1963. In 1940, 44 year-old Prescot was recorded in the census as “banker” and declared a yearly income of $5,000 (approximately $111,000 in 2024 dollars). The home of the family, inhabited by 9 people, was owned by Prescot Bush. Living with him were his wife, Dorothy (38), whose occupation was listed as “home-housework,” and 5 children: Prescot Jr., future president George H. W. Bush, sister Nancy, and brothers John and William. 2 women employees lived with the family as well: 39-year-old Agnes McChith from Scotland worked as a “nurse” 77 hours a week for a yearly salary of $960 (approximately $21,000 in today’s dollars). 42-year-old Anna Mabler from Germany was the family’s “maitresse” who worked 70 hours a week and earned a yearly salary of $840 (approximately $19,000 in today’s dollars).

The Bush family in the 1940 U.S. Census

Bill Clinton in the 1950 census

William Jefferson Blythe III, the 42nd president of the USA, known as Bill Clinton, was 3 years old when the 1950 U.S. census was taken. He lived with his maternal grandparents in Hope City, Arkansas.

His grandmother, Edith Cassidy (48) was listed as “keeping house”, while her husband, Clinton’s grandfather, James Eldridge Cassidy (49), worked 65 hours a week as a storekeeper at a grocery store, and earned an annual salary of $1,700 in 1949 (approximately $22,300 in 2024 dollars).

Bill Clinton (William Jefferson Blythe III) and maternal grandparents in the 1950 U.S. census

Clinton’s mother, Virginia Dell Cassidy, is not listed with the three, probably because she was training to be a nurse anesthetist in New Jersey and married car salesman Roger Clinton Sr. around the same period of time. Clinton’s father, William Jefferson Blythe Jr. died four years earlier in a car accident, three months before his son’s birth.

Barack Obama’s mother in the 1950 census

The 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, was born in 1961, so we’ll need to wait until 2042 for the 1970 US census to be published in order to find him. For the time being, we found his mother, 7-year-old Ann Dunham living at 515 W. Central in Ponca City, Kay, Oklahoma with her parents. Obama’s maternal grandfather, Stanley (32), worked 54 hours a week as a “furniture salesman” in the “retail furniture” industry. Because Stanley Dunham appears on the census sample line, we can see that in 1949 his yearly salary was $3,500 (approximately $46,000 in 2024 dollars). Stanley was also recorded as serving in the U.S. army during WWII.

Obama’s mother with her parents in the 1950 census

Obama’s maternal grandmother, Madelyn (27), worked as a “clerk proof reading” in the “oil refinery” industry and earned a yearly salary of $2000 (approximately $26,000 in today’s dollars).

Obama’s father, Kenyan economist Barack Sr., met his mother while the two were students in Hawaii, where Obama was born on August 4, 1961. They later divorced, and Obama’s mother married a man from Indonesia, where he spent his early childhood. Before starting 5th grade, he returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents and attended Punahou elementary school on a scholarship. We will have to wait and see if the census enumerator was able to document the future president in 1970.