IPUMS Multigenerational Longitudinal Panel: Version 1.2

The IPUMS Multigenerational Longitudinal Panel project links individuals' records between full count censuses from 1850 to 1940. IPUMS disseminates full count census enumerations for nine census years from 1850 to 1940. These full count data, covering almost 700 million individual records, are the fruit of collaboration between IPUMS and world's two largest genealogical organizations --Ancestry.com and FamilySearch-- to leverage genealogical data for scientific purposes. Full count data have opened the possibility of automated record linkages across census years to construct millions of individual life histories and trace millions of families over multiple generations. This version of IPUMS MLP links individuals between adjacent censuses, identifying the person across a chain of census years where possible. The linking strategy was the same as Version 1.0. This version differs from version 1.0 in using updated versions of the full count census data. In addition, small changes were implemented in the linking code, including i) an updated name standardization file, and ii) census-specific inter-county and state distance files. The software that calculates name similarity was also updated, producing additional minor changes. This is the first version of MLP to be available through the IPUMS USA data access system; the links are also available as crosswalk files.