Where Are We From?

The New York Times continues to feed me interesting information graphics and, by extension, wonderful topics for blogs. This week’s contribution marries two of my interests – maps and genealogy.

For a while, I’ve told you about our advances in family history research. And this map tracks migration patterns in the U.S. So, the two topics 

Indeed, our family tree has become quite an interest for me. Recently, Holly did a little more research about the Garys. Previously, we could trace our family to a crossing from England in the 1630s and we could go back one generation. Now, we are able to add a second. So, in other words, we know the grandfather (William) of the man who first came to America as well as his father (Nathaniel).

The brave man who made that first Atlantic Crossing, Arthur, brought three sons to the new world along with his courageous wife, Frances. 

All Garys in this country have descended from one of their three sons. My grandfather told me this fact many years ago; Holly’s research confirmed it. And this latest information she found told her a little more about one of those three lines and a lot about another.

But, doing a segway back to the Times’ map…it’s a good one. Lots of data and an interesting topic.

I have probably told you before that maps are another great interest of mine. I would go so far as to label myself a map geek.

This map tracks migration patterns for citizens of each of the 50 states.  Or put another way, “Where Are We From?”

The New York Times examined birth states for residents of each of the states (circa 2012). It’s no shock that the number one response for each state, in most cases, was that state.  Only 25 percent of Nevadans come from Nevada, for example, but it is still the majority response.

Close to home, 61 percent of Tennessee residents hail from the Volunteer State. My family falls in that bucket, of course, and so did my dad and my grandfather. 

I know the Times is talking about current residents, but if you track the movements of Garys I mentioned earlier, the migration goes as follows. We landed in Nantucket. We went from Massachusetts to Virginia to South Carolina to Mississippi and then to Tennessee. 

I think that is my great grandfather’s generation. Or maybe my grandfather. Census data gets sketchy.

In any case, back to the modern era, in Tennessee, the second largest chunk (5%) is “born outside the U.S.” I know several people in that category, myself.

Others with 2% or over:

• Kentucky
  
• Georgia
  
• Mississippi
  
• Ohio
  
• Illinois
  
• Florida
  
• California

Everyone else…well…it’s 1% or lower.

I won’t bore you with a state by state recap. You can check out the map for yourself if you are interested.  But I did find a few additional stats fascinating and worth highlighting. One thing you see, easily, is that easterners tend to stay put more so than folks from west of the Mississippi River; it’s even more pronounced west of the Rockies.

I guess that makes sense. Otherwise:

• 77 percent of Michiganders were born in Michigan
  
• 28 percent of Californians were born outside the U.S. (it’s 25 percent in New York)
  
• Less than 1 percent of Alaskans were born in Tennessee
  

Like I said, you can check out the map to look at your own home state and view its migration patterns and interesting trivia.

Two other factors of note: 

1. There are overlays that allow you to look at migration patterns in 1950 and 1900 and compare them to the 2012 map. The one thing I noticed is that there was less movement in the older maps (makes sense, right). Still, the breakdowns on the 2012 map are similar to 1950 but the 1950 numbers are higher (80 percent of Tennesseans in 1950 were born in Tennessee compared to the number 61 for 2012).  The jump from 1900 to 1950 was not as stark. Again…makes sense.
   
   Of course, the Garys had made it to Tennessee by 1900 so we are a personification of that statistic.
   
   
2. Another interactive graph tells you about where people from your state went after they left. Honestly, I didn’t spend too much time with that one but if you are interested, I invite you to check it out.

As I said before, I’m a map geek. But, there’s only so much data I can absorb in sitting; only so much data you want to read in a single edition of Coach Jeff’s Blog. 

JG

Originally posted 3/5/2015