What Is The Person's Ancestry?

What Is The Person's Ancestry? T HIS WAS THE QUESTION asked in the "long-form" questionnaire of the 1980 Federal Census. On 5 June 1983, The New York Times reported on the results of this survey. The response to this question should be of interest to genealogists. More than 118 million Americans traced their origins back to one foreign country, and nearly 70 million listed more than one foreign country. The list is fascinating. The Times stated that "the United States looks more like a salad bowl of nationalities than a melting pot. ." Those of English ancestry led the list, Bruce K. Chapman, director of the Census Bureau, suggested that the figure for English-Americans may be low, "The English, having been assimulated in this country before the word ‘assimulatecr was even thought about, sometimes tend to be regarded like an undercoat of paint on a house. . ." It is interesting, that those listing their ancestry as English totaled more than the current population of England and Wales. The Irish also outnumbered the present population of Ireland. According to the study, the first five large nationality groups are spread evenly across the country, others are more regional. The Italians are concentrated in the Northeast, as are the Russians. Norwegians and Czechs are found in the North Central states. California has the largest concentration of English, German, Irish, French, Scots, Dutch, Swedes, Danes and Portuguese. While New York has the largest groups of Italians, Poles, Russians and Hungarians. In Pennsylvania the largest groups are Welsh, Ukrainians and Slovaks. Minnesota has the most Norwegians, and Illinois the largest population of Czechs. The following list, in numerical order, shows the totals of Americans who reported their ancestry groups. 228 What Is The Person's Ancestry? 229 English 49,598,035 Japanese 791 ,275 German 49,224, 145 French Canadian 780,488 Irish 40 165 , 702 Slovak 776,806 Afro-American 20,964, 729 Lithuanian 742,776 French 12,892,246 Ukrainian 730,056 talian 12, 183,692 Finnish 615,872 Scottish 10,048,816 Cuban 597,702 Polish 8,228,037 Canadian 456,212 Mexican 7,692,619 Korean 37&,676 American Indian 6, 715,819 Belgian 360,277 Dutch 6,304,499 Yugoslavian 360,174 Swedish 4,345 , 392 Romanian 315,258 Norwegian 3,453,839 Asian Indian 311,953 Russian 2,781 ,432 Lebanese 294,895 Spanish-Hispanic 2,686,680 Jamaican 253,268 Czech 1 ,892,456 Croatian 252,970 Hungarian 1 ,776,902 Vietnamese 215,184 Welsh 1 664 598 Armenian 212,621 Danish 1,518,273 African 203,791 Puerto Rican 1 ,443,862 Hawaiian 202,052 Portuguese 1 ,024, 351 Dominican 170,698 Swiss 981,543 Colombian 156,276 Greek 959,856 Slovene 326,463 Austrian 948,558 Iranian 122,890 Chinese 894,453 Syrian 306,638 Filipino 795,255 Serbian 100.941