You now have the data to compare with your personal experiences. Please verify census tract information with professor. Use this combined information to describe your personal thoughts and experiences living in the neighborhood which you outlined

Final Research Paper: Racial Genealogical Demographic Project          

The written portion of the paper should be a minimum of twelve (12) full pages in length separate from the two appendixes. Use 12-point font, Times New Roman, one-inch margins, and set page to double spacing. The first 3-4 pages of this paper will be genealogical/historical, and the second 3-4 pages demographic. The final 3-4 pages will provide your analysis and conclusions. You can include personal thoughts either at the end or within each section. The analysis is an essential part of your paper and the most heavily graded. The first appendix will be your family tree, and the second appendix your demographic printout. You can also include questions you asked your interviewees in the appendix. Students are required to use the class texts and a minimum of four scholarly sources that you will incorporate in your paper. Though there is some leeway with this project, papers must still be written in an academic manner. This means proper grammar, spelling, and sentence structure is expected. APA formatting and citation style is required, but no abstract is needed. Please cite appropriately, no plagiarism will be accepted and will result in penalties if found, including up to a zero on the assignment.

1. Your Family

The purpose of this section is to learn about your family history and their racial and ethnic experiences. Informally interview five family members and ask them questions regarding ancestry, crime, law, immigration, and personal experiences with race in the United States. You can also interview a local law enforcement person and/or a community organization to gain their perspective on race, crime and justice in your community. Document your interviews by taking notes on either a notepad, piece of paper, or computer. Use your family information to create an ancestral chart which will allow you to visualize your family. You can print out an ancestral chart from http://www.ancestry.com/download/charts or one of your choice and fill in the necessary information. Try and go back as far as you can. You can describe things such as how long your family has been in the United States, how it was growing up, what activities or occupations they were involved with, and/or how race/ethnicity has impacted their life. You can include how your family ancestry and oral histories have impacted your perception of self and identity.

2. Demographic

The purpose of this section is to learn about the social environment in which you have lived. Choose an address that has impacted your life the most (i.e., length of time, formative period in life) and Google American Factfinder (http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml).

1)       Once you arrive at this website, scroll down, in the lower right-hand corner between “New Notes” and “Reference Maps” there is a box titled Address Search in blue letters, click on it.

2)      A box will pop up where you can enter your street address, city, state, and zip and click GO. This page takes you to another page that will show Geography Results:

3)      Next, for Geography Type scroll down and select the row with the Census Tract (it is usually the 7^th link down). Click on it.

4)      After your census tract appears in the upper left column you can click Topics. A little box will appear and show you what will be included in your search, you can close this little box.

5)      Now you can make use of various sources of data such as (selected characteristics of total and Native populations) general demographics, social characteristics, economic characteristics, etc. Click on the links and explore to include the most important information (this will vary based on each students’ perspective).

6)       Include your selected data in the appendix of your paper. There is an option to save as a PDF file on the top left of your data.

You now have the data to compare with your personal experiences. Please verify census tract information with professor. Use this combined information to describe your personal thoughts and experiences living in the neighborhood which you outlined. Some things to include might be: Describe racial and ethnic integration into your neighborhood. Was there a lot of crime? Was race a factor while living in your community? Can you relate your findings to the readings and/or class? Think and write critically!