NC Immigration Patterns
In the Dec/Jan 2010 issue of Internet Genealogy, one of the websites reviewed was the New York Times online interactive map that shows immigration patterns in the United States from 1880-2000, their Immigration Explorer.
It is an interesting site to explore; you can zoom down to the individual county level for any state and see the percentage of residents that are foreign-born. This snapshot of Wake county, where our state capital Raleigh lies, shows that in 1880, of the 48, 203 residents, only 245 (0.5%) were foreign born with the largest group of immigrants from Western Europe.
In 1930, there were 95,206 residents with 449 residents foreign-born (0.47%). Western Europe is still reflective of the largest group, but the numbers are not as high as in 1880.
In 1970, there were 233,444 residents with 4,991 foreign-born (2.13%) but now the largest group of immigrants are of Asian/Middle Eastern descent.
In 2000, we see another shift in Wake County. Of 687,918 residents 60,072 (8.7%) were foreign-born and now the largest group is from Latin America.
It’s interesting to explore how the make-up of each of the counties. Check out your county of interest and see what you learn. While this does not add data to our research at the individual level, it does help to set a perspective on the ethnic compositions of our counties.
Zebulon Baird Vance (1830-1894)
Today on one of the blogs I follow in my feed reader, Southern Graves, there was a posting of the tombstone of North Carolina governor Zebulon Baird Vance. Upon reading the post I decided to do a little more reading about Zebulon, for even though I knew the name, I don’t know much about him. I commented on the blog post that the first time I knew anything about Zebulon was as a grad student at the University of North Carolina. The financial aid office is in Vance Hall, which is named after him. Someone obviously did not pay attention in her 8th grade North Carolina history class!
I did some online searching to see if I could locate an obituary for Zebulon, as I’m sure it must have been printed in many newspapers. Sure enough, I quickly found one in the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America newspaper collection. Here is an obit that appeared in the 15 Apr 1894 issue of the San Francisco Call newspaper.
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DIED FROM APOPLEXYWashington, Apr 14. — Senator Vance of North Carolina died at his home, 1726 Massachusetts avenue, this city, at 10:40 o’clock tonight. He had a stroke of apoplexy this morning. He had been suffering for some time from paralysis and a complication of diseases, but the end was sudden and unexpected, as he was regaining his health, and was thought to be on the road to recovery. He was compelled during the winter to leave the Senate and go to Florida. There he grew somewhat better, and in view of the struggle over the tariff returned to Washington. He was a member of the Committee on Finance, but took little or not part in framing the present tariff bill.
Zebulon Baird Vance was born in Buncomb [sic] County, North Carolina, May 13, 1830. He was educated at Washington College, Tennessee, and at the University of North Carolina, where he studied law. In 1852 he was admitted to the bar and established himself at Asheville, N.C., where was chosen County Solicitor, and in 1854 was elected to the Legislature. Vance was opposed to the secession of North Carolina, but after that step was taken he raised a company and soon afterward was appointed colonel of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina, a regiment that became the most famous organization of Southern soldiers. (read more at the Library of Congress website) |
The cities of Zebulon in Wake County & Vanceboro in Craven County are both named after him as well. His papers are held in the UNC Southern Historical Collection. Do you have any research connections with Zebulon or his family?
