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Abstract
This paper introduces four new intergenerational and multigenerational datasets which follow both sons and daughters and which can be used to study the persistence of longevity, socioeconomic status, family structure, and geographic mobility across generations. The data follow the children of Black and White Union Army (US Civil War, 1861-5) veterans from birth to death, linking them to the available censuses. The White samples include an over-sample of children of ex-POWs. A separate collection links grandchildren of White Union Army veterans to their death records. The data were created with high quality manual linkage procedures utilizing a wide variety of records to establish links.
Acknowledgments
We thank Heather DeSomer, Sandra Mason, Heather Giles, Irene Clark, Janice Faulconer, and Annalisa Crain for their tremendous work in creating the datasets. We thank Martha Bailey for helpful comments. We gratefully acknowledge the support of UCLA and of NIH grants P01 AG10120 and R21 AG064460 and the use of facilities and resources at the California Center for Population Research, UCLA, which is supported in part by NICDH grant P2C HD041022.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The true volunteers were those who enlisted before the draft instituted during the mid-point of the war – those who volunteered later were motivated in part by the financial incentive of a bounty offered by areas needing to meet their enlistment quotas.
2 Causes of death are available for 23% of grandsons with a death year and for 17% of granddaughters with a death year.
3 Problems with the name index to the 1940 Census are well known to genealogists. Some of these stem from the Ancestry name index (and also complete census count data) being done abroad by workers with little experience deciphering census records and with limited English language skills. The good news for future projects using our linkage methods is that Ancestry indices improve with continued use by Ancestry subscribers and researchers.
4 Ancestry, Family Search and Find A Grave were used to find an assortment of records, with each record often leading to another record. These records include include death records (often with parents’ names, exact birth dates, exact death dates and other family member names), birth records (with exact birth dates and parents’ names), marriage records (with spouse’s name and often with parents’ names), WWI and WWII draft registration cards (with exact birth dates, next of kin, often a parent or a spouse, and address), and Social Security claim or death index (with exact birth dates and frequently with parents’ names). The unindexed notes on Social Security applications list additional names (including maiden names).
5 The hierarchy of sources for death dates was death certificate, official state provided death index, obituary, military document, Find a Grave with linkages for family members and/or accompanying documentation such as death certificate images and obituaries, Social Security Death Index and Social Security Applications and Claims Index (with included parent names, married names, and last residence), and public Ancestry.com Family Trees.
6 Death sources are available in some form on-line for all 50 states. Each state varies in the type of death information and dates available. Sometimes information is provided only by the individual counties. A listing of availability is provided by deathindexes.com.
7 The 1898 circular asked for names and birth dates of living children and the 1915 circular asked for this of all children, living or dead.
8 This fraction is likely to rise with the growing on-line availability of death indexes.