This project sought to link people and their family members over time between 1880 and 1920.  It began with samples of 4678 New Yorkers and 6650 Chicagoans in 1920, both men and women.  About half of these were traced to 1900, and many were found (or their parents were found) in 1880.  Analysis of these data is just beginning.  In a new project we plan to track them and their children forwards to 1930 and 1940.  Here we show information about our initial pilot study in New York where we tested the feasibility of finding both men and women selected from the 1920 census in 1900.

An important feature of this project is that we seek to place people in their neighborhoods, and study various kinds of changes in their lives over time, including residential mobility.