German speakers in the US, 1940 census

[King of Kensington]

This report from the 1940 census has the German mother tongue population broken down by state and generation.

http://tinyurl.com/ybhu4z4r

Overall there were 4,949,780 people declaring a German MT, of whom 1,589,040 were foreign born, 2,435,700 had one or two foreign born parents and 925,040 were at least third generation on both sides of their family.

German MT in selected states:

New York  652,120  4.8%
Wisconsin  506,000  16.1%
Illinois  486,600 6.2%
Pennsylvania  407,120  4.4%
Ohio  328,820  4.8%
Minnesota  293,560  10.5%
California  222,700  3.2%
New Jersey  209,220  5%
Iowa  200,220  7.9%
Missouri  173,220  4.6%
Texas  159,100  2.5%
Nebraska  133,260  10.1%
North Dakota  123,700  19.3%
Indiana  123,600  3.6%
Kansas  109,920  6.1%
South Dakota  83,160  12.9%

Third generation+ and % of German MT population in state:

Pennsylvania  140,500  34.5%
Wisconsin  128,080  25.3%
Minnesota  83,080  28.3%
Ohio  73,320  22.3%
Texas  71,060  44.7%
Indiana  48,280  39.1%
Missouri  47,240  27.3%
Iowa  44,360  22.2%
Kansas  31,440  28.6%
Michigan  30,080  13.1%
North Dakota  25,500  20.6%
Nebraska  24,600  18.5%
South Dakota  20,360  24.5%
New York  19,120  2.9%
California  16,800  7.5%
New Jersey  8,420  4%

[Dr. MB]

That's very interesting. Some of my ancestors are German but none born after the early 1900s grew up speaking it. I'm seventh generation and it died out by the third or fourth.

[jimrtex]

That's very interesting. Some of my ancestors are German but none born after the early 1900s grew up speaking it. I'm seventh generation and it died out by the third or fourth.

It may be depend on living in a relatively isolated community where most persons are German-speaking. I've read stories of persons in their 80s, as a child visiting grandparents in Fredericksburg, and the women in the stores would speak Tex-Deutsch. The Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung was a German-only publications from its founding in 1852 until 1948. As the New Barunfels Herald-Zeitung, it is one of fifteen Texas newspapers that trace their founding to before the Civil War (it also has been English only since 1957).

After two World Wars, it was probably not a good idea to emphasize your German-ness.

[King of Kensington]

Not surprising to see North Dakota top the list in % speaking German, given that the German-Russian immigration was later and went largely to isolated and ethnically homogeneous settlements.  

Lawrence Welk was born in the US, but he wasn't a native speaker of English and retained a German accent.