UNIVAC's Birthday at the Census Bureau

A fun This Day in History given our anticipation of new U.S. census records on Monday: the first UNIVAC computer was delivered to the United States Census Bureau on March 31, 1951, and was dedicated on June 14 that year. Isn't it cool that the world's first commercial computer was put to use at the Census Bureau?

As well as being the first American commercial computer, the UNIVAC I was the first American computer designed at the outset for business and administrative use (i.e., for the fast execution of large numbers of relatively simple arithmetic and data transport operations, as opposed to the complex numerical calculations required by scientific computers).... The first sale, to the Census Bureau, was marked with a formal ceremony on March 31, 1951, at the Eckert–Mauchly Division's factory at 3747 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia.

Some specs:

UNIVAC I used 5,200 vacuum tubes, weighed 29,000 pounds (13 metric tons), consumed 125 kW, and could perform about 1,905 operations per second running on a 2.25 MHz clock. The Central Complex alone (i.e. the processor and memory unit) was 4.3 m by 2.4 m by 2.6 m high. The complete system occupied more than 35.5 meters of floor space.

By contrast, my five-year-old iMac has a 667 MHz clock.

CNN commemorated the 50th anniversary of UNIVAC's arrival at the Census Bureau with some fun facts here.

Follow Friday: Western Front Association

Tuesday's Tip: Inflation Calculations & Genealogy

I was looking at some 1905 divorce records the other day and noticed that my great-grandfather owed $2.50 per week in child support. Since he worked as a day laborer, timekeeper, and as a machinist, I suspect that the $2.50 represented a significant amount for him. To find a more precise answer to questions like this, I used to use NASA's inflation calculator, but recently I found a set of calculators that I think are very impressive.

The site is called www.measuringworth.com. 

One of the things I like best about it is that it uses data sets for currencies from the UK, US, Japan, and China.

It also provides several calculators:

Annualized Growth Rates
Relative Values - US $
Relative Values - UK £
Relative Values - China ¥
Relative Values - Japan ¥
Conversion ($ and £)
Purchasing Power - US $
Purchasing Power - UK £
Savings Growth - US $
Inflation Rates
Stock Growth Rates (DJIA, SP500 & NASDAQ)

The answer to my question about 1905 child support?

In 2010, the relative value of $2.50 from 1905 ranges from $49.90 to $1,260.00.

A simple Purchasing Power Calculator would say the relative value is $63.90. This answer is obtained by multiplying $2.5 by the percentage increase in the CPI from 1905 to 2010.

This may not be the best answer.

The best measure of the relative value over time depends on if you are interested in comparing the cost or value of a Commodity , Income or Wealth , or a Project . For more discussion on how to pick the best measure, read the essay "Explaining the Measures of Worth."

I decided Income or Wealth is the best fit and the results are:  

If you want to compare the value of a $2.50 in Income or Wealth , in 1905 there are four choices. In 2010 the relative:

historic standard of living value of that income or wealth is $63.90
contemporary standard of living value of that income or wealth is $135.00
economic status value of that income or wealth is $341.00
economic power value of that income or wealth is $1,260.00.

Pretty nifty, eh? Try it on your family's economic records and see what you get. 

Follow Friday: IntheLibrary

Today's Follow Friday is about In the Library With the Lead Pipe, a great blog I just found written by a team of librarians working in various types of libraries across the United States. The blog's goal is "to explore new ideas and start conversations; to document our concerns and argue for solutions."

One recent post in particular – "Snooki, Whale Sperm, and Google: The Unfortunate Extinction Of Librarians When They Are Needed Most" – had some interesting thoughts on information, disinformation and misinformation that I believe are of great help to genealogy researchers.

One of the earliest things that I learned in my first class in library school over ten years ago was the true definitions of three words: information, misinformation and disinformation. At the time the words seemed similar, but my wise professor spent a lot of time dissecting each one and discussing the difference between the terms. I learned in that class something that all librarians know, that misinformation is inaccurate information delivered with the absence of malice and that the person or service delivering the inaccurate facts is not intentionally trying to mislead or misinform. Of course as librarians we know that disinformation is the most sinister of the three terms, yet do our patrons know to be wary of false information that is published to purposely and deliberately misinform and mislead?

The poster's point is mostly about medical information on the Internet, but immediately thought about the family trees that have been uploaded over the years and the caveat emptor that should accompany each one.

The Luck of the Draw

Anders Larsson and family, Björklund, Lindesberg, Örebro Län, Sweden, 1861-1870

This has never, ever happened to me before. I found my Swedish great-great-grandparents at the top of the first page of the first parish book I looked at this morning!

I was searching Swedish parish records this morning (btw, thanks for buying Genline and saving me some money, Ancestry!). My search for a particular parish revealed 72 hits and there they were right at the top of the first book. I may have to lie down in a darkened room to recover!

Tuesday's Tip: Unified 1940 Census ED Finder

The 1940 anticipation is really building. I've seen estimates of about six months to get the name index of the 1940 census available. If you just can't wait in the meantime, and if you have an idea where your ancestors were living, then you need to find the enumeration district number that was applied to their neighborhood or village. And that means it's time to visit the indispensable Stephen P. Morse and his one-step pages. 

He's got a great set of pages up with step-by-step guidance for finding your ED number based on your ancestor living in a rural area, town, or a major city. The tutorial is here:

http://stevemorse.org/census/quiz.php

And the Unified 1940 Census ED Finder is here:

http://stevemorse.org/census/unified.html

My boring Scandinavians in Chicago never moved, so I should be able to find them right away. My husband's Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas relatives will have to wait for the name index, I think.

Follow Friday: FreeObituariesFound.org

Today's Follow Friday post is about FreeObituariesFound.org, which "exists to make all obituaries freely accessible by everyone." The purposes of the site are to:

• Create and market a free Internet obituary archive
• Publish, index, and preserve new obituaries
• Duplicate, transcribe, abstract, index, and preserve past obituaries
• Publish instructional materials for obituary writers, genealogists, and historians
• Persuade obituary copyright holders to place content in the public domain and or make them freely available

As with FindaGrave and other popular genealogy sites, the content comes from the users. Take a look at the screen where you can contribute obituaries here:

http://www.freeobituariesfound.org/contribute

FreeObituariesFound.org is owned and operated by Ben Sayers's company, Things to Teach, Inc., which also brings you GenealogyTools.com and Lineascope.com.