Sunday, November 10, 2013

Statistical/Numeric - American FactFinder

American FactFinder homepage (US Census Bureau site):



From the homepage area called "community facts," I searched for information on the town of Sneedville, TN in Hancock County which is commonly accepted as the origins of Melungeons and an area where many Melungeon families still reside.  I looked at the racial makeup of Sneedville and no mention of Melungeon or tri-racial groups is found:


Using advanced search, I did a search for "race and ethnic identity" within Sneedville and TN and could find zero results for "Melungeon" and "tri racial."


Best hit:  No best hit as no mention was found of subject.  Note:  The other statistical and numeric options (BLS, etc.) offered in our lab were also searched with, again, no mention of "Melungeon" or the other tri-racial isolate groups aforementioned.

One content based item learned:  I did not learn anything new about my search project topic(s) as no mention of them were found on this site.

One searching item/tip learned:  The multi-step "guided search" was a new type of search for me.  Searching by both "geographies" and "race/ethnic" groups really helped narrow down results when I searched for other groups that were not my chosen topic - "Cherokee" for instance.

Search process:  As just mentioned, when I chose another racial/ethnic group, I was able to really narrow down searches for very specific numbers.  I like the layout and interface of the site and find it generally simple to use.  I would have had a much better experience if the racial groups I searched for had been recognized on this federal government website.









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