CREAT: Census Research Exploration and Analysis Tool

Person Matching in Historical Files using the Census Bureau's Person Validation System

September 2014

Working Paper Number:

carra-2014-11

Abstract

The recent release of the 1940 Census manuscripts enables the creation of longitudinal data spanning the whole of the twentieth century. Linked historical and contemporary data would allow unprecedented analyses of the causes and consequences of health, demographic, and economic change. The Census Bureau is uniquely equipped to provide high quality linkages of person records across datasets. This paper summarizes the linkage techniques employed by the Census Bureau and discusses utilization of these techniques to append protected identification keys to the 1940 Census.

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:
data, database, census data, census research, respondent, record, matched, matching, ancestry, associate, census bureau, census file, records census, use census, census use, datasets, identifier, census records, linkage

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:
Social Security Administration, Service Annual Survey, 1940 Census, American Community Survey, Social Security Number, Protected Identification Key, National Opinion Research Center, 2010 Census, Minnesota Population Center, PIKed, Person Validation System, Person Identification Validation System, Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications, Census Numident, Census Bureau Person Identification Validation System, SSA Numident, Personally Identifiable Information

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