JENKS— ETHNIC AMALGAMATION 



Lake Benton we secured data for the purpose of studying amalgama- 

 tion, cohesion, and the effect of amalgamation on fecundity. So, in 

 addition to the facts obtained in Minneapolis, we ascertained for both 

 heads of all families the age at marriage, the number of years married, 

 and the number of all living children. 



When the term "pure-bred" or "pure blood" is used in this study, 

 as, for instance, "pure-bred Norwegian", the meaning is that the 

 persons are to the best of their knowledge and belief descendants 

 solely of a single ethnic group of ancestors. All these ethnic groups, 

 as Norwegian, Irish, Welsh, German, etc., are historically known to be 

 more or less mixed, yet they are sufficiently "pure-bred" that the mar- 

 riages within such an ethnic group are easily distinguishable from 

 mixed marriages between two such ethnic groups. 



The accompanying Table A, entitled "Relative Fecundity of 

 Pure-bred and Half-breed Families in Minneapolis," presents, in its 

 left half, data on fourteen ethnic groups of so-called pure-bred fam- 

 ilies. Under the first column, entitled "Ethnic Group", are ranged, 

 in order of decreasing fecundity, fourteen out of thirty-seven so-called 

 pure-bred ethnic groups, families of which we found in Minneapolis. 

 Group number 6, the "German", comprises also the Austrian families, 

 since it was discovered that Jews, Magyars, and the families of various 

 Slavic groups from Austria-Hungary commonly designated them- 

 selves as other than Austrians: persons who commonly spoke of 

 themselves as "Austrians" were in practically every case Austrian- 

 Germans. Group number 7, the "Canadian", comprises all Canadian 

 families, except French-Canadian. We found in Minneapolis that 

 the so-called "French-Canadian" families were very pure French, and 

 that the other Canadian families were well amalgamated. They com- 

 prised Scotch, English, Welsh, and Irish blood, in the main. Group 

 13, the "American", comprises all families whose ancestry is so mixed 

 as to be practically unknown in its ethnic components. There are 

 relatively few exceptions to the rule that in Minneapolis most parents 

 who are of the third generation of American birth are so the product 

 of amalgamation that they do not completely know their ethnic 

 composition. 



By following the first group, the Dutch, across the table, from 

 left to right, it may be noted that we studied thirty families in Minne- 

 apolis both heads of which were Dutch — as we commonly say, "Hol- 

 land-Dutch". Those families had 106 unmarried children, being an 

 average of 3.53 children per family. Pure-bred Dutch men or women 

 had married pure-bred mates from thirteen ethnic groups other than 

 Dutch. There were 181 such half-breed families with a total of 331 



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