Linking the 1940 U.S. Census with modern data

Abstract

The U.S. Census Bureau has created a set of linkable census, survey, and administrative records that provides longitudinal data on the American population across the past eight decades. While these files include modern decennial censuses, Census Bureau surveys, and administrative records files from other federal agencies, the long time span is only possible with the addition of the complete count 1940 Census microdata. In this paper, we discuss the development of this linked data infrastructure and provide an overview of the record linkage techniques used. We primarily focus on the techniques used to produce a beta version of a linkable 1940 Census microdata file and discuss the potential to further document and extend the infrastructure.     

BOOK REVIEWS

The author considers three methods of counting maternal deaths, and hence of calculating maternal mortality levels, in the nineteenth century. The first method counts maternal deaths classified in contemporary statistical publications. The second method examines nineteenth-century death registers for records of maternal deaths. The third method identifies maternal deaths through family reconstitution. The author finds that each method, in isolation, leads to underestimating maternal mortality levels because maternal deaths were often misregistered or misclassified under nonmaternal causes and were often not associated with live, registered births, as required for family reconstitution.     

西方人口史研究新进展述评

20世纪中叶以来 ,西方在人口史研究方面取得了巨大进展 ,还采用了新的研究方法。这些成果不仅提供了对近代人口普查前的各国人口数量和结构等基本状况的描述 ,而且增进了历史学对一些重大问题的理论探讨 ,拓宽了历史学的视野和领域。     

Railways as a Factor of Change in the Distribution of Population in Spain, 1900–1970

Abstract

The central focus of this work is to test a new methodology to measure the impact of the railway on the distribution of population, in this case in Spain. To achieve this, it was necessary to previously integrate data relating to population and railway lines into a geographical information system. The result was a spatial database that includes population data from homogeneous census series obtained for the municipal scale and the evolution of the railway network in service at corresponding points in time. This allowed the authors to apply spatial-temporal analysis. By so doing, this work constitutes an analysis of a new methodology, as they used exploratory spatial data analysis and geographically weighted regression to detect spatial patterns and estimate the influence of the railway and distance from the coast on population change. The results obtained show that the influence of the railway was very pronounced in some areas, while in others it was just one of the factors that could explain major changes in population distribution.     

Union Army veterans,all grown up

This article overviews the research opportunities made possible by a National Institute on Aging-funded program project, Early Indicators, Intergenerational Processes, and Aging. Data collection began almost three decades ago on 40,000 soldiers from the Union Army in the U.S. Civil War. The sample contains extensive demographic, economic, and medical data from childhood to death. In recent years, a large sample of African-American soldiers and an oversampling of soldiers from major U.S. cities have been added. Hundreds of historical maps containing public health data have been geocoded to place soldiers and their family members in a geospatial context. With newly granted funding, thousands of veterans will be linked to the demographic information available from the census and vital records of their children.     

Rebuilding the Great Britain Historical GIS,Part 1: Building an Indefinitely Scalable Statistical Database

Abstract

The Great Britain Historical Geographical Information System (GIS) has been rebuilt around a single central table holding all statistics in one column, currently containing 14,541,491 data values. This architecture enables extremely flexible data handling, but requires that the context of each data value be captured entirely as metadata. Statistical reporting areas are defined via an ontology of administrative units, in which hierarchical relationships are compulsory while boundary polygons are optional. What a number measures is recorded via a relational implementation of the Data Documentation Initiative standard, locating each value within an n-dimensional matrix, or nCube, whose dimensions are variables such as age, gender, and occupation. The data library can be extended to additional countries or more statistical topics without adding any database tables.     

《宋史·礼志》史料价值初探

《宋史·礼志》的史料价值主要体现在四个方面:一是记载较为系统与丰富,包括总体和局部两种情况;二是保存了部分珍贵史料,如诏令奏议、礼论等;三是订正他书讹误与不足,有时间误、人名误、职官误、地点误等;四是后世官私著述之史源。     

Sex ratios and life tables: Historical demography of the age at which women outnumber men in seven countries, 1850–2016

Abstract

The male/female sex ratio (SR) and its age-specific patterns vary considerably across time and place. The SR generally begins male-biased at birth and becomes female-biased later in life, but this relationship should respond to historical trends and events. Temporal trends in SRs remain largely unstudied and formal demographic relationships are not well defined. We (1) define SRs in a life table framework, (2) estimate the age at which the number of males and females achieves parity—the sex ratio crossover (SRX)—using basic life table methods, and (3) explore historical and international patterns in these trends. Using publicly-available data from the Human Mortality Database, we construct SR and SRX measures from period and cohort life tables. Analyses explore temporal patterns for seven countries in different global regions since 1850. Overall temporal trends show the SRX advancing to older ages. The SRX also appears to respond to historical events such as wars and epidemics. The measure is simple to construct from life table data, and provides additional insight into the historical context of gender dynamics.     

古代书学著作著录述论

中国书法源远流长,书学也有着悠久的历史,历代目录学著作对书学著作的著录随着书学文献的不断丰富而发展。论文分析了从《汉书·艺文志》到《四库全书总目》历代目录学著作对书学著作的著录情况,勾勒出我国古代书学的发展概况,并力图揭示其历史原因。