File talk:Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County.svg

This is actually much larger and slower than the original. --JWB (talk) 21:09, 19 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's too small, I can't read it... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.10.223.248 (talk) 20:58, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Androscoggin county, Maine, is spelled wrong in the legend. Chriscrutch (talk) 05:20, 31 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Can't read the text

Why is this here if it can't be seen? I can't read anything on it, at all, the text is garbled, why is a larger source image not in place when one is available? Revrant (talk) 01:57, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The original image used to be very large, obviously something has happened, hopefully someone can restore the original. Zarcadia (talk) 14:42, 13 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Miscolored Pennsylvania counties

Chester and Lawrence Counties are colored as German when they have Irish and Italian, respectively, as pluralities. Check the county pages under "demographics."---Heff01 (talk) 17:47, 8 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Were they wrong in the earlier versions of this file? If not, were they wrong in the .jpg or other image the .svg was created from? --JWB (talk) 19:47, 8 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am a what?

The legend text is far too small to read, and the colors not are differentiated enough since it took me several minutes to realize the map called me "Irish" and not "Irani". Is there a larger version of this map that can be magnified? 71.234.215.133 (talk) 12:29, 7 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What is the point of this map?

American ancestry:

My father was born in Ohio with a distinctly English surname

My mother was born in Rhode Island with a French derivative surname

My siblings were born in a part of California that this map says is Mexican

I was born in a part of Connecticut that is "Irish"

My siblings' children were born in the same part of CT that I was - according to the map, an Irish part

What is the point of this map? I am a native Connecticteer. People I grew up with spoke French (Little Canada) or Italian, not Irish, as a second language (although the occasional St Patrick Cathedral still survives). What possible relevance does the "Ancestries by country" truly hold? 71.234.215.133 (talk) 12:46, 7 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. I'll bet the data are obtained by asking people on census forms to list their pre-American origins or something similar. If so, it becomes a meaningless excersize based on family myth and personal preference. If the map is to be believed America would be speaking German, not English! Also, there is a Norwegian, but no Swedish category, yet far more Swedes than Norwegians emigrated to the US. Pointless 1812ahill (talk) 18:37, 6 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Standard census procedure is that if someone puts down something like English-French-Norwegian-Irish, the census only counts the first term given (here "English")... AnonMoos (talk) 19:43, 5 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Very few Irish immigrants spoke "Irish" in the first place - My Irish ancestors didn't. If you're not aware, English (and later British) rule in Ireland restricted use of the Irish Gaelic language in society, with all but a small isolated fringe on the western coast switching to English as their primary tongue in recent centuries. Since independence there's been a push to revive Irish Gaelic in schools, but English remains dominant and certainly was the main language spoken by Irish immigrants in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Questioning ancestry based on language in such a way is akin to questioning whether or not African Americans are the largest ethnic group in some rural county of Mississippi despite the lack of Swahili, Yoruba, and Zulu speakers there.

This map may not seem important to you because you're only looking at the present and the future. The past, however, shapes both the present and the future, and knowing where people came from can help you understand society better. For example, an above comment suggests that these results should highlight German as the dominant language in this country, not English. This shows a profound ignorance of German American history, during which many families of German origin shed their old country language, customs, and even surnames in favor of Anglo-American ways as a response to anti-German backlash during the two World Wars. Also, the reason English ancestry is under-reported is due to the status of English Americans as the 'norm' in the foundation of the United States population, against which everyone else defines themselves. Many in the northern states probably downplay their small percentage of distant English ancestry in favor of more recent, more distinctive ancestries. Many in the southern states disregard their far-removed English, Scottish, and Scotch-Irish heritage, resulting in the large cluster around the Appalachians that refers to itself as "American" only. Many others are unaware of their own ancestry, excepting the Utah with its large genealogy-interested population of Latter Day Saints practitioners. More than anything else, knowing your ancestry is simply interesting for many people, as is the idea of connecting yourself to a cultural identity, and why demand a larger significance than that? --98.114.176.218 (talk) 07:50, 10 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Colors

If I might add, as a color blind person, it is nearly impossible for me to distinguish what ethnicities are what because of the similar shades of blue. More differing colors should be used. --98.221.91.6 (talk) 02:49, 10 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

              Also, the purple in oregon does not match any color on the legend(Whiterussian19 (talk) 02:17, 13 January 2011 (UTC))[reply]