Given the wealth of historic census data and analysis done on it, family historians could be exploring and using derived data from the census in a number of different ways.
- Moving from the individual, to the family group, the next obvious step is to examine the wider community.
- The clues hidden in the data can often offer up clues to explain an individuals behaviour.
- On a National scale, fascinating statistics can be drawn such as those compiled from American census material from 1880 to 2000.
Take a look here at the interactive Immigration Explorer Map collated by the US Census Bureau
- Select a census year 1880 – 2000
- Hover over a spot and the data shows the total number of the population and then the number in that population foreign born for the country you have chosen
I used this data to better understand the movement of one part of my family who had emigrated to America in 1879. They made several moves in a relatively short time, each one to a community that had a larger English immigrant population. Not information that would have been easy for me to extrapolate myself.
On a smaller scale you can derive your own data from local census material and we will be posting on how to use technology to grab this data and visualize it in a number of different ways.
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