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*[[U. S. Immigration Records: Finding the Town of Origin|'''U. S. Immigration Records: Finding the Town of Origin''']] | *[[U. S. Immigration Records: Finding the Town of Origin|'''U. S. Immigration Records: Finding the Town of Origin''']] | ||
==Background== | ==Background== | ||
*By the mid-18th century, the French occupied forts at Fort Pontchartrain, Fort Michilimackinac, and forts present-day Niles and Sault Ste. Marie, though most of the rest of the region remained unsettled by Europeans. France offered free land to attract families to '''Detroit, which grew to 800 people in 1765, and was the largest city between Montreal and New Orleans.''' | |||
*French settlers also established small farms south of the Detroit River opposite the fort, near a Jesuit mission and Huron village. | |||
*During the American Revolutionary War, Detroit was an important British supply center. Most of the inhabitants were '''French-Canadians or Native Americans'''. | |||
*The population grew slowly until the opening in 1825 of the Erie Canal through the Mohawk Valley in New York, connecting the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and New York City. The new route attracted a large influx of settlers to the Michigan territory. | |||
*A '''second wave of French-Canadian immigrants''' settled in Michigan during the late 19th to early 20th century, working in lumbering areas in counties on the Lake Huron side of the Lower Peninsula, such as the Saginaw Valley, Alpena, and Cheboygan counties, as well as throughout the Upper Peninsula, with large concentrations in Escanaba and the Keweenaw Peninsula. | |||
*Pre-statehood settlers of Michigan generally came from '''New York, Ohio, the New England states, and Ontario'''. | *Pre-statehood settlers of Michigan generally came from '''New York, Ohio, the New England states, and Ontario'''. | ||
*Many immigrants from '''Germany and the Netherlands''' arrived by 1850. Later arrivals were '''Scandinavian, Irish, Cornish, Italian, and Polish'''. | *Many immigrants from '''Germany and the Netherlands''' arrived by 1850. Later arrivals were '''Scandinavian, Irish, Cornish, Italian, and Polish'''. | ||
*Ford's development of the moving assembly line in Highland Park marked a new era in transportation. With the growth, the auto industry created jobs in Detroit that attracted '''immigrants from Europe and migrants from across the United States, including both blacks and whites from the rural South.''' By the 1930s, so many immigrants had arrived that more than 30 languages were spoken in the public schools. | |||
*Michigan has the largest '''Dutch, Finnish, and Macedonian populations in the United States.''' | |||
===Demographics=== | |||
*Americans of '''European descent''' live throughout Michigan and most of Metro Detroit. Large European American groups include those of '''German, British, Irish, Polish and Belgian ancestry.''' | |||
*People of '''Scandinavian''' descent, and those of '''Finnish''' ancestry, have a notable presence in the Upper Peninsula. | |||
*Western Michigan is known for the '''Dutch heritage''* of many residents (the highest concentration of any state), especially in Holland and metropolitan Grand Rapids. | |||
*'''African-Americans''', who came to Detroit and other northern cities in the Great Migration of the early 20th century, form a majority of the population of the city of Detroit and of other cities, including Flint and Benton Harbor. | |||
*As of 2007 about 300,000 people in Southeastern Michigan trace their descent from the '''Middle East'''. Dearborn has a sizeable '''Arab community''', with many '''Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac, and Lebanese''' who immigrated for jobs in the auto industry in the 1920s along with more recent '''Yemenis and Iraqis.''' | |||
*As of 2007, almost 8,000 '''Hmong people''' lived in the State of Michigan, about double their 1999 presence in the state. | |||
*As of 2015, 80% of Michigan's '''Japanese''' population lived in the counties of Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Wayne in the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas. The state has 481 Japanese employment facilities providing 35,554 local jobs. | |||
==Immigration Records== | ==Immigration Records== | ||
'''Immigration''' refers to people coming into a country. '''Emigration''' refers to people leaving a country to go to another. Immigration records usually take the form of ship's '''passenger lists''' collected at the port of entry. See [[Michigan Emigration and Immigration#Online Resources|'''Online Resources'''.]] | '''Immigration''' refers to people coming into a country. '''Emigration''' refers to people leaving a country to go to another. Immigration records usually take the form of ship's '''passenger lists''' collected at the port of entry. See [[Michigan Emigration and Immigration#Online Resources|'''Online Resources'''.]] | ||