Notes from the National Panel Study: Linkage and Migration in the Late Nineteenth Century

Some methodological and substantive issues concerning record linkage in historical research are explored through an analysis of linkage rates in the first known national U.S. sample of white males in the nineteenth century the National Panel Study developed at the University of Washington. In this study the 1880 and 1900 census manuscripts were used to link two relatively equal samples of birth cohorts aged 5-14 and 25-34 in 1880. Some 39.4 percent of the 10252 men in the two cohorts were successfully linked by using information on their personal and household characteristics. The relative influence of alternative linkage predictors is assessed. The author also considers the use of these data to investigate migration. (EXCERPT)