TIGER schema information

Question

I've recently pulled some of the TIGER data onto my local machine but, I'm at a loss about what it all means. I'm hoping to find some technical documentation on what all the tables and columns mean.

For example, what does the column tlid in the table addrfeat represent?

Specifically, I'm trying to pull up address information by area, i.e, what are all the possible addresses in downtown Albany, NY?

I have it sort of working but I don't feel confident about the results since I just pulled data without regard to the meaning of the columns or tables.

Answer 1

There are several products of US TIGER data. The TIGER/Line Shapefiles and Files are the most extensive data set... information can be found here.

Once on that page there are different years of data sets to choose from along with general information. Each year has its own "Technical Documentation" which contains information that explains every aspect of the data.