FRENCH
FRENCH
Distribution of French American::
Foreign-
born.
Maine 30,908.
New Hampshire 44,420.
Vermont 14,924.
Of Foreign
Parentage.
57,682 73,359 40,097
Massachusetts 134,416 244,586
Rhode Island 31,533 55,771
Connecticut 19,174 36,867
New York 27,199 69,236
New Jersey 1,118 2,140
Pennsylvania 1,468 3,603
Totals for North At
lantic Division 305,160 583,341
Delaware 41 77
Marj'land 87 178
District of Colimibia 97 236
Virginia 104 194
West Virginia 72 165
North Carolina 36 69
South Carolina 31 56
Georgia 80 203
Florida 88 200
Totals for South At
lantic Division 636 1,378
Ohio 2,903 7,034
Indiana 948 3,242
Illinois 9,129 24,477
Michigan 32,483 75,584
Wisconsm 10,091 27,981
Minnesota 12,063 32,406
Missouri 1,059 3,536
Iowa 1,519 5,613
North Dakota 3,162 6,512
South Dakota 1,138 3,516
Nebraska 1,039 3,003
Kansas 1,485 5,547
Totals for North Cen ■
tral Division 77,019 198,451
Kentucky 136 397
Tennessee 119 312
Alabama 89 211
Mississippi 75 141
Texas 400 1,004
Louisiana 253 759
Indian Territory 48 173
Oklahoma 179 702
Arkansas 161 411
Totals for South Cen-
tral Division 1,460 4,110
Montana 3,516 5,725
Wyoming 150 385
Colorado 960 2,300
NewMe-xico 84 270
Arizona 153 264
Utah 128 505
Nevada 222 486
Idaho 395 846
Washington 1,899 3,862
Oregon 874 2,169
California 2,410 5,392
Totals for Western
Division 10,791.
22,204
The figures given for Louisiana are, of coiu-.se,
exclusive of all other inhabitants of French extraction ;
those relating to California are exclusive of the large
population of immigrants from France established m
that State, more especially in the city of San Francisco.
There were also, 115 persons of French Canadian
parentage in Alaska, and 4 in Hawaii, besides 502
persons of the same parentage in the military and
naval service of the United States, stationed abroad
and not credited to any State or Territory. Com-
bining with these small figures the totals for the five
VI.— IS
divisions given in the last column of the table, we get
the grand total of 810,105 persons of French Canadian
parentage living under the United States Flag. But
these figures only represent the first and second genera-
tions, i. e. original immigrants still living, and their
immediate descendants. In this connexion the
director of the census says: "A small number of the
persons reported as of foreign birth, are themselves
of native parentage, so that, to a very small e.xtent,
the number of persons of foreign birth reported at
each census is not included in its entirety in the num-
ber of persons reported as of foreign parentage. The
figures are sufficiently comparable, however, to .show
the large body of population which must be added to
the foreign born element itself in order to ascertain,
even appro.ximately, the number of persons of foreign
extraction at any of the census periods considered.
Moreover, this is the best figure that can be given as
expressing the element of our population which is of
foreign extraction, as the census inquiry does not go
beyond the immediate parents of each person enu-
merated, and it is impracticable, at least imder present
conditions, to endeavor to determine the origin of the
people beyond a single generation."
It is obvious, that an inciuiry which does not go beyond the immediate ancestors of each person enum- erated cannot convey an exact idea of the real number of those who may still be distinctly classified as French Americans, even though both of their parents may have been born in the United States. And when it is remembered that the French Canadians were early settlers in the northern part of the State of New York, that they were, practically, the first settlers of the State of Maine, and had found their w-ay into Vermont as early as 1S30; that French Canadians were the pioneers of the Wcsti rii Stufcs. where they founded, or assisted in foundinu. i;ri:ii cities like Chicago, St. Louis, St. Paul, Duliu>|iic, .Milwaukee, and Detroit, it is not difficult to undcrstami that in certain parts of the country at least three generations of French Americans have been recorded by the census of 1900 as native whites of native parents. How far short of the actual number of French Americans are the figures of the National Census, may be estimated by con- sidering the local eiuunerations taken in the New England States since 1900, with the following results:
Maine 91,567
New Hampshire 84,011
Vermont 58,217
Massachusetts 366,879
Rhode Island 76,775
Connecticut 46,083
Total 723,532
These figures, compared with the tot^l (508,362) of those given in the Census of 1900 for the same six States, show an excess of the local over the national enumeration of 215,170 persons, or more than 42.3 per cent, for New England alone. This excess, ex- plained in part by the fact that the census inquiry of 1900 was limited to only two generations, is also at- triljutable to the continuous flow of immigration and in greater measure to the large birth-rate which is still mamtained among the French Americans, it having been scientifically established that the French Cana- dians — at least in Canada — double their numbers by natural increase every twenty-six years. Taking into consideration the increase (42.3 per cent) shown by the enumerations in New England over the figures given by the National Census, and also bearing in mind the fact that the figures quoted above do not include the French from France (reported as being 265,441 by the census of 1900) and the French-speak- ing Belgians, scattered throughout other States than those of New England, we may conclude that the French Americans in the United States to-day number
